AVH: Alien vs. Hunter (2007)

Truly Dreadful Film

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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

An alien spacecraft crashes in the Californian wilderness, releasing a giant spider-praying mantis creature which promptly begins killing anyone in its path. As the surviving members of the local town attempt to fight it, a mysterious alien Hunter also appears, trying to kill the creature, but finding plenty of time to hunt some of the local humans as well.The Asylum is a production company based in California which has become infamous amongst the genre community for its 'mockbusters' – ultra-cheap generic rip-offs of major Hollywood blockbusters in a cynical attempt to make some easy money out of fooling videostore customers by using deceptive titles & packaging. They hit their stride in 2007, which was the year that they started making these 'mockbusters'. In the case of AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, the Asylum decided to pre-empt the anticipated success of ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM. But with the source film bombing badly at the box office, the prospects of AVH went to the gurgler fast.There has been some controversy surrounding the making of AVH – it seems that credited director Scott Harper was not actually responsible for making the film. If the numerous rumours circulating around are to be believed, Harper just showed up to shooting & did practically nothing, standing around playing games on his iPhone while the assistant directors (Justin L. Jones & Xavier S. Puslowski) did all the work. If this is true, then Harper doesn't deserve the credit for making the film.With all that going on, it's a surprise that upon watching the film, AVH actually seems more coherent than initially expected. The film will never been seen by anyone as a classic – in fact it is pretty weak, with a paper-thin plot & some bad scripting. The visual effects are a mix of suit-work & cheap CGI that doesn't look terribly convincing. There is also some confusion in the Asylum's in-house effects company over the visual effects needed, with a couple of shots not making sense. The costumes look cheap – the Hunter's outfit looks like a cobbled-together armour suit with a cracked welder's mask & an upside-down wok for a hat. The alien creature looks slightly better.As for acting, the cast give a mixture of reasonable & purely reactive performances. William Katt, Dedee Pfeiffer & Randy Mulkey are the only professionals of the bunch while everybody else either doesn't know what they are doing or giving strictly amateur performances.

It truly doesn't take much to be considered one of the 'better' Asylum movies, simply show a small amount of competence and you're well beyond the curve for most of this particular studio's output. But what truly disastrous, bottom of the barrel swill do you have to sink to to be seen as the worst of the Asylum?? This leads us into AVH.Starring William Katt as a journalist who stumbles onto an alien invasion, this movie is detestable in just about every conceivable way. Acting, plot, special effects and any semblance of anything even remotely reassembling entertainment value be damned. I'm sincerely worst for having subjected myself to this asinine claptrap (or is it crap trap) of a 'film'

*Contains Spoilers*For the most Alien vs. Hunter is painful to watch. The acting is especially bad even for an Asylum film and the first hour or so is nothing short of boring. A few people are suspected dead and the remaining residents of a town hold a meeting to decide what to do, sadly this is stretched over at least half an hour.The plot is a pretty simple one that is somehow made complicated, or perhaps not complicated but broken in a way that no other plot could ever be. The film assumed the viewer has seen or knows what Alien vs Predator is about; there isn't really any explanation as to what is going on or why and it wasn't until a brief explanation late on in the film telling us the 'Hunter' won't stop until the hunt is complete do we 'learn' that the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz is hunting the Spider-Alien (who actually more resembled a Predator).The thing I love about SyFy films is that it's so easy to guess who is going to live and who is going to die, and AVH is no different. With characters called Figgus, Freckles, Valentine and Two Fingers you can't expect much, and the acting didn't disappoint. It was truly awful. It really is that bad. Illogical decisions and stupidity seems to be especially prominent in AVH but it wouldn't have made much of a film if they had escaped town as soon as possible.I try not to knock Asylum films for their poor CG either but it has to be touched on here as they are of such a low quality they would have been shocking for 1980.Fear not though as AVH has an ace or two up it's sleeve. The last 20 minutes or so are fantastic and by far the most fun an Asylum film has delivered. It's comedy gold with non-stop awful CG and completely unsynchronized and over exaggerated acting in what is the grand finale. It has to be seen to be appreciated but I haven't laughed so much watching a film for a long while. It makes little sense but that doesn't matter, it entertains.The very end deserves a mention as well. The Tin Man hunter returns to his ship, takes his mask off and like the rest of us after a hard days work, he has a smoke and a can of beer. Top stuff.In summary there is no reason what so ever to watch the first hour or so but the last 20 minutes shouldn't be missed by anybody. I want to give AVH a high score based on these alone but the truth is that even for an Asylum Film it is pretty bad and it can't hide how awful the rest of it really is.

My friends and I like to watch crappy movies every so often. Inspired by Mystery Science Theater and our knack for on the spot jokes; We set out to find movies worth watching that are in fact...not worth watching. However trouble comes into paradise when these movies can only be found if you buy them. And I am a firm believer in not giving one cent to such a group of talentless scumbags. So, as another reviewer has said, films like this are a reason why downloading movies for free should be legalized. I prefer the idea of; instead of straight to VIDEO you have straight to INTERNET. That way the ass-bags who made this travesty won't ever turn a profit. Which unfortunately you know they do. They hire a bunch of actors who can't act, special effects from a high school classroom, paper machee creatures and ONE car for every character and scene. Why do you think they walk so much in this movie? Because that Toyota Rav-4 That was the Sheriff's squad car that has no markings and no lights also served as that bald guy's car, which is somehow flipped over and destroyed. I guess the stunt driver was just a crack addict they picked up off the street and filmed him trying to drive away and that was the result.Anyways, the movie is great to make fun of, but you have to make sure there's at least 4 of you and you're all spitting out jokes in rapid fire, because if there's even 1 second of watching this movie where you're not laughing your ass off, you will feel physically ill. I kid you not. My friends and I were eating chicken wings and now I can't even look at such a thing anymore without being reminded of this piece of Sh!t.This film is second only to Snakes on a TRAIN which is by far the worst movie ever made. And I've seen lots of bad movies. Incidentally, it's the same production company as this film and that bald guy is in both as well. just thought you might like to know that little fun fact. -100 out 0f 10.