Extraterrestrial, They're Here...and They're not Nice

They're here!  Been here since Roswell, back in the 40s. Our government has a treaty with them, as we all know.  We allow them to suck some of us up into their ships for experiments (you know...probing and mind control stuff), and in turn, they let us run around as if we own this planet. Or so explains Travis (Michael Ironside) in 2014's "Extraterrestrial" (aka "The Visitors").  This is of course total fiction!  We all know our government has our best interests in mind, and would never do anything to harm us.  The government we know would never join forces with evil for a supposed bigger good.  If you don't believe that, perhaps some re-education might benefit your attitude.

As our film opens, a woman (Emily Perkins) on the run, is sucked out of a phone booth while on the phone to 9-1-1. Surveillance footage will show she was pulled up into the sky.  Now five great looking young people are driving into these woods to spend some time at a cabin (..I love when that happens).  Pot, loud music, and drink...and oh yes...pre-marital sex are planned.  April (Brittany Allen) is planning to break up with Kyle (Freddie Stroma), and Kyle is planning to propose to her. Here come the ETs.  Melanie (Melanie Papalia) and April accidentally come across Travis and his weed-farm.  Travis is a pot-head/survivalist, convinced UFOs are here.  Soon our quintet will know he speaks the truth.  During an awkward pre-orgy (April has just rejected Kyle's proposal), a UFO arrives.  The scared kids find a shotgun and April shoots one of the ETs.  Don't fret, these aliens did not come to foster intergalactic understanding.  On the run, Lex (Anja Savcic) is sucked up into a ship, sending our group running to Travis.  

 Now this film gets quite busy.  Many will complain that too much is going on, but I disagree.  This film tries to be science fiction/horror/love story, which I believe it succeeds at.  An all out war between our quintet and the aliens ensues.  A subplot plays out in which the town sheriff (Gil Bellows) investigates the abductions, which will prove most heart-breaking.  As the ETs begin subjecting our friends to gruesome fates, April's anger comes out and she turns in to quite the warrior. As the monsters appear to be invincible, and all hope appears lost, April's new found love of Kyle inspires her to defeat a foe which our government could not.  Will she have enough to save her friends? Will our own government prove to be a bigger threat than the space visitors?

The acting is terrific, and so are the effects and gore for the budget in which this film was made. Director and writer Colin Minihan is ambitious and does not hold back.  We do get to see inside the spaceship and witness an alien probing of one of the quintet, and it is horrifying.  If you, like me, were put off by the corniness of "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," then this film is for you.  Available on Netflix, don't forget to watch the skies.