Parasite (1982)

Fresh and Exciting

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Charles Band has made a lot of good movies in his time, but a lot of his movies are bad too. However, if you watch his movies older than 1999, their usually good. This is one of his movies before 1999, and I have to say, it had a brilliant hook at the start of the movie. However, after that it did introduce us that the movie was set in the future, however it kinda dragged a little on about the gangsters and other surroundings in the future. Myself, I think they could be able to shorten that bit five minutes shorter, but then again, slow movies do seem to express how the character's personalities well, and I'm usually quite forgiving. After some 30 minutes of dragging on, they finally get back to the story. Yay, finally. And ever since that, the movie actually started to become really good. So, it is recommended you go see this movie, even if it is a little slow in parts. I rate it 7.4/10.

(Read more reviews at TheCutUp.blogspot.com)Paul Dean is dying and on the run. In an undated future, a man who once worked for the government creating super secret parasites, has now turned his back on them and become a fugitive. While housing one of the leeches in his own body, he dodges an agent and tries to find a cure for his infested stomach all at the same time.He ends up in a little community that consists of desert, a couple of houses, a hotel and a garage that is shelter for a gang of thugs. As if Paul needed more on his plate of things to look out for, the gang starts roughing him up, so he finds the aid of a town girl named Patricia (Demi Moore). Together, they try to survive against a life eating parasite and what the harsh world has become.In the future, government agents drive Lamborghini's! At least that's what Parasite, the futuristic 3D blood-sucking bug movie would have you believe. That's right, Parasite was originally intended to be and was released as a 3D movie. Most movies that are 3D don't really have much in the way of content because they're trying to support the gimmick and believe me, Parasite just adds to that pile of gimmicky monster movies.Parasite really is a mixed bag. There are some scenes that are pretty creepy or gory yet entertaining while there are others that are boring or cheesy (yet still entertaining) or just contradict the whole idea that Paul is on the run and that the agent after him has any idea what he's doing. While watching it, you'll wish that you had the 3D glasses to see all of the scenes where you know that it's really enjoyable.The casting is give and take. Personally, I think Paul Dean is odd looking and doesn't really give off the vibe of a hero type. He plays a doctor, but he is pushed into a hero role where he not only has to save himself, but others around him as well. I guess you could say that he doesn't look the part because in essence, he really is just a doctor but I'm not going to dig that deep. Besides, he's a very creepy looking doctor anyway; I wouldn't let him work on me. Parasite also features Demi Moore in her "first starring" role. The DVD boasts this fact and is very proud of it.What I was really shocked about was the music. The music is good for this kind of movie, when you usually have to just deal with orchestral jabs and such. After I did a bit of research I found out that the man behind the music for Parasite, Richard Band, is the man who is also behind the music for classic B movies like The Reanimator Series, The Puppetmaster series and From Beyond (which he actually won an Academy Award for).It's a good idea to check out everyone else who was involved in the making of Parasite on IMDb.com. For a not-so-great movie, there are a lot of recognizable b movie names in there.My ultimate concern with Parasite is that it takes itself too seriously. There are a few scenes that are funny based on bad editing or acting but for the most part, it's just boring because everyone makes the whole movie very important and proper. What usually makes a B horror film experience swell is the fact that the actors take the part seriously but in a different direction, to the point where they forget the topic at hand. Which in turn makes their over-acting show in a glorious way. Luckily, Parasite has the bit-parters to hold up the bad acting and cheesy lines.If you're looking for that typical boring-Saturday-afternoon type movie, Parasite really shines. If you don't mind your futuristic parasite infestation movies to be a little drab and boring in between the decent and gory scenes, then you may enjoy this B movie. If you're looking for constant cheesiness or frightful moments, it's probably best to get your life sucked away elsewhere.

I thought Demi Moore looked kinda sweet. Otherwise the film was a mess. A silly script and sillier characters. Still, I thought the film was a lot of fun to watch. It had some scary moments. That creature was really lame dripping it's goop all over the place. I agree that when the creature dropped from the ceiling it was kinda scary. When the Merchant finally got his comeuppance, you could clearly see the fire-suit helmet. If a propane tank that size exploded, I doubt if you could find any body pieces. The price of premium gasoline was $40.57. The time setting of the film must have been just a few years into our future.So if you want to watch this film, just sit back and get ready for some laughs. After watching this film I thought I should go into the movie making business. I know I could do a movie just as well in a week's time.

"Parasite" is a far less interesting film that it should've been.**SPOILERS**In a future wasteland, Dr. Paul Dean, (Robert Glaudini) roams the California desert seeking a temporary lab for his experiments, and comes upon local barkeep Collins, (Al Fann) and his waitress Patricia Wells, (Demi Moore) in their run-down town. A roaming gang, led by Ricus (Luca Bercovici) and other members Zeke, (Tom Villard) Chris, (Scott Thomson) Dana, (Cherie Currie) Buddy, (James Cavan) Bo, (Joannelle Nadine Romero) and Arn, (Freddie Moore) doesn't approve of his friendship with them and steal the main subject of his experiments, a container with a vicious parasitic organism inside. A corporate agent, The Merchant, (James Davidson) seek Dean out to return it to his lab, and when the parasite escapes and begins to chew through the gang, they race to stop it while trying to avoid being killed by the agent.The Good News: This one is a really underwhelming film, and has only a couple things to like about it. The effects here are among it's best features, which the highlight is an incredibly messy and grotesque face exploding sequence when the parasite goes burrowing into the face, as the amount of blood shorn and the impressiveness of what it's showing make for some really good moments. There's also an effective, finger flexing hand cut off with a laser that keeps flopping around, and there's some other notable kills as well. There's a really great pole through the body, a couple chomped bodies, a chewed through throat and some victim set on fire. The parasite itself is suitably nasty and messy, especially as it drips sticky goo fang-filled mouth. The ending, which features a lot of action and some really great set-pieces, is the film's greatest part, really ending the film in a high-note. Beyond these features, however, there isn't much of anything else worthwhile for the film.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot to like, and this wasn't all that terrific. The film's biggest problem is that it's just far too slow. The main town used for most of the film isn't arrived at until the twenty minute mark, leaving tons of time for the introduction of everything else to come slowly afterward, and the set-ups for the gang take too long as well. We're slowly introduced to them one at a time, and this takes a while since the gang is pretty big, and it just chews up time to have to get to know such a big group as slowly as it does here. The absolute lack of anything resembling action is another big hindrance, since the parasite is loosened pretty early on but only slowly goes through the group and most of the time is spent with the two groups mostly yelling at each other or wandering around the town trying to avoid the creature or the agent. It gets old after a while and you just wish for the creature to come faster and attack the characters more often. The pace only kicks up near the end, leaving plenty of time to wander if something will happen. The other thing that really doesn't work is the 3-D effects. Naturally, since most of the time there's no action on-screen, the effects have to handle the majority of the rest of the screen-time and utterly fail. There's a lot of really weak ones in here, mostly just the obvious ones that don't have any reason to be plunged at the audience, such as steel pipes after being impaled through a victim, teeth from the creature during an attack, and other such items. They're all pretty gratuitous, and don't really do anything other than just be there because of the gimmick. There's other problems with this one, but they're not as bad as these ones are and can be avoided or ignored.The Final Verdict: With only a few mildly interesting parts about it, this really wasn't as good as it really could've been, and it's really only got a few appealing values. It falls right in line with the cheesy features at the time, so it you're a fan, then give it a shot, but otherwise steer clear as there's far better ones out there of that time.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, some Language and a mild sex scene