ThrowBack Attack! Movie Review- Alien Apocalypse

For years and years I worked at a movie store. I bought a bajillion movies and there are some I STILL haven’t watched, or that should have earned a rewatch by now. Alien Apocalypse falls into the first category. This movie came out in 2005 (but had previews for Evil Dead) It was the highest rated SciFi Pictures Original of all time! (Still? Maybe).

Bruce Campbell says of the film “Think Spartacus with aliens.” 

 

This is the international cover, which is much cooler than the American one. 

A manned space probe returns to Earth after 40 years. The crew has been taking a cryogenic nap and when they unceremoniously return to Earth, things seem normal at first; world class horror alumni Bruce Campbell stars as Dr. Ivan Hood who starts trying to mack it to astronaut Kelly (played by Renee O’Connor of Xena). 

Soon they find that Earth has been taken over and people enslaved by giant termites. 

 

It goes about how you expect: they 4 person crew gets captured, misunderstandings, puns and beheadings ensue. They’re kept in an underground bunker with people who have been prisoners for decades. After each failed escape the aliens take one of your fingers. People work all day chopping wood (for the termites) and they fight each other over gruel. At first Ivan and Kelly don’t fight for food. But exhausted from digging an escape tunnel, they soon succumb to desperate behavior. 

“Do your work well and lives, that is your only choice.”

This has been going on for 20 years. The President is hiding in a bunker. Some people think that the he will come back to save them, but Bruce… err… Ivan and Kelly try to rally the humans. Pushed too far they attempt to lead a rebellion. And get not much support. In the escape Ivan and Kelly get separated. Kelly is captured while Dr. Hood is saved by a beautiful but not very bright girl, who takes him to her even less bright village: Freedom Valley. One of the last human settlements. There he manages to round up some more supporters and they head off to find President Demski…

They do, but what they find isn’t a leader, it’s a cowardly old man. 

Will Dr. Hood be able to rally the humans and kill every last alien?

 

There’s a few funny running gags along the way. No one knows what a handshake is, no one has ever heard of a doctor. But why did no one TRY to kill the aliens before? 20 years isn’t all that long, people would still remember what life was like…. so that was weird.

All and all, enjoyability-wise… I give it a 3.

Written and directed by Josh Becker (who was a production assistant on Evil Dead directed episodes of Xena and some movies that sound interesting but that I have never seen.)