Roger Corman oftentimes would use a big budget film as a template for his B movie. Jaws was one of the films he would do, but the film that seemed to bring out some of his more entertaining films during the 70's, 80's and 90's. This one had its moments, but not as good as "Galaxy of Terror" and "Forbidden World". It has some good effects, some good deaths and a decent enough for a plot like this. The main problem is the pacing. One minute everyone is alive, the next we are quickly down to the last two! There are also problems with the plot as there are several things in it that kind of do not work. The cast is okay, a lot better than a film with a similar theme, "Xtro 2". In that one we are stuck with a lead in Jan-Michael Vincent who is seemingly drunk! This one features George Kennedy who appears not to want to be in the film, but at least he does not slur his words like Vincent did!
The story has the world's population mostly wiped out by some sort of plague. In this world, strange monsters the characters refer to as gargoyles...why are said beasts roaming the world now? Don't ask me, I don't have a clue. There really is no explanation as to why these things exist. Well, there are people at an underground facility that is kind of studying the things, or finding a cure or something...not sure on this either, but two of them are topside trying to find food and stuff and are killed by something. A man, along with his dog, Butch...Butch Stevens go to see what happened along with this girl and find them dead and find what appears to be a small human colony that was living in a cave. They locate a survivor and bring her back to the facility, but she turns out to be pregnant and it turns out to be a monster and thus it begins to attack the members of the facility! Thus, Butch Stevens and his buddy try to fight off said beast and try to survive the terrible onslaught!
One of the main problems I found with this film is the pacing. They have like six main cast members, but as soon as the monster takes out one of them, the others are taken out within a span of ten minutes and we are done to the final two people and watching one get thrown around by the monster just like in the worse film, "Creepazoids". George's death is rather funny though as he blasts the monster four times with his 'laser' then rushes the beast most likely to expel himself from the film sooner! Another problem is the plot...there are portions that do not make any sense. Like, why they are so desperate for food? There is not that many of them and the facility they are in is four levels, didn't anyone think of heavily stocking it with food? Also, it is not like there was a nuclear war, there are animals aplenty outside. There is also the strange lack of weapons. The main guy has a crossbow, which considering the effectiveness is more trouble carrying around than it is worth. When the monster attacks they have to rig weapons together, once again, four levels, no one thought to bring anything with a bit of punch to it? I mean, there are evil gargoyles taking over the world and no one brought an assault shotgun or machine gun?
So, the film is not bad and is enjoyable for the most part. They really needed to spread the deaths of the team a bit more as one of the reasons one watches a film like this is to see the deaths, so when you have them so close together it kind of makes the last portion of the film a bit more bland than it would have been. Still, there was a good monster exploding from belly scene and a cool scene with a fan too! Of course, even with all the shortcomings one will enjoy Butch Stevens performance!
The story has the world's population mostly wiped out by some sort of plague. In this world, strange monsters the characters refer to as gargoyles...why are said beasts roaming the world now? Don't ask me, I don't have a clue. There really is no explanation as to why these things exist. Well, there are people at an underground facility that is kind of studying the things, or finding a cure or something...not sure on this either, but two of them are topside trying to find food and stuff and are killed by something. A man, along with his dog, Butch...Butch Stevens go to see what happened along with this girl and find them dead and find what appears to be a small human colony that was living in a cave. They locate a survivor and bring her back to the facility, but she turns out to be pregnant and it turns out to be a monster and thus it begins to attack the members of the facility! Thus, Butch Stevens and his buddy try to fight off said beast and try to survive the terrible onslaught!
One of the main problems I found with this film is the pacing. They have like six main cast members, but as soon as the monster takes out one of them, the others are taken out within a span of ten minutes and we are done to the final two people and watching one get thrown around by the monster just like in the worse film, "Creepazoids". George's death is rather funny though as he blasts the monster four times with his 'laser' then rushes the beast most likely to expel himself from the film sooner! Another problem is the plot...there are portions that do not make any sense. Like, why they are so desperate for food? There is not that many of them and the facility they are in is four levels, didn't anyone think of heavily stocking it with food? Also, it is not like there was a nuclear war, there are animals aplenty outside. There is also the strange lack of weapons. The main guy has a crossbow, which considering the effectiveness is more trouble carrying around than it is worth. When the monster attacks they have to rig weapons together, once again, four levels, no one thought to bring anything with a bit of punch to it? I mean, there are evil gargoyles taking over the world and no one brought an assault shotgun or machine gun?
So, the film is not bad and is enjoyable for the most part. They really needed to spread the deaths of the team a bit more as one of the reasons one watches a film like this is to see the deaths, so when you have them so close together it kind of makes the last portion of the film a bit more bland than it would have been. Still, there was a good monster exploding from belly scene and a cool scene with a fan too! Of course, even with all the shortcomings one will enjoy Butch Stevens performance!