SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Scott LeBrun Objectively speaking, the feature directing debut for Maryland-based regional filmmaker Don Dohler may be very crude and indicative of a very low budget at every turn. But while a movie like this may lack the spit and polish of typical Hollywood product, it has something that a lot of those big productions don't have: heart. "The Alien Factor" has the irresistible appeal of movies made by friends who just wanted to get together and have a good time. The design of the monsters shows some imagination, and overall this qualifies as cheese of the very best kind.A spaceship containing three dangerous alien creatures crashes to Earth. The creatures escape, and begin to slaughter various unlucky locals. The intrepid lawman on the case is Sheriff Cinder (Tom Griffith, who sports a great hairdo and mustache), who has the help of people like his deputy Pete (Richard Geiwitz) and Dr. Ruth Sherman (Anne Frith) and her nephew Steven (George Stover). Then along comes a mystery man, Ben Zachary (Don Leifert), and he seems to know more than he's letting on.This endearing bit of schlock often falls back on director Dohlers' dialogue, but when the monsters show up and are doing their thing, the movie is a great deal of fun. The tall monster, the "Zagatile" (performed by John Cosentino) is particularly delicious - wait until you get a load of the legs on this thing. The final monster, the stop motion created Leemoid, shows the most invention. The final quarter of "The Alien Factor" is definitely its best one.While there may be no Oscar contenders here among the cast, they create likable enough characters. Richard Dyszel amuses as a stereotypically sleazy mayor, and Mary Mertens is good as pushy reporter Edie Martin. That's Dohler himself playing Ernie, and his kids Greg and Kim can also be seen on screen.Kenneth Walker does the music score, which is sometimes positively goofy. Ernest D. Farino, who went on to have a substantial career in Hollywood, designed and animated the Leemoid and also devised the opening credits sequence.Most agreeable, for any lover of regional B cinema.Seven out of 10.

d_m_s As far as B movies go, this was pretty enjoyable, hence my score of 7 (in comparison to other b movies of course). I would have scored it higher but the alien fight at the end was one of the worst atrocities I've ever seen committed to film, with its inconsistent lighting (some shots were in daylight and some were with a 'day for night' effect), worst special effect I have ever seen and just a terribly choreographed scene overall.Still, the rest of the movie made up for it. Loads of bad acting, boom mics coming into shot, terrible dialogue and all that. But it somehow all managed to be done in an enjoyable way, unlike some b movies which have the same flaws but are totally boring rather than entertaining. It had a good atmosphere and nice locations. It kind of felt like I was watching a film made by a student friend and I got the feeling it would have been fun to film. I enjoyed it and it's one of those films where you can dig it out when you're having a few beers with mates and have a good laugh along with it.

BA_Harrison A spaceship crash lands in Baltimore, and it's cargo—three zoological specimens from the farthest reaches of the universe—escapes to feed on unfortunate locals.Don Dohler, special effects enthusiast and creator of Cinemagic magazine, showcases his own work and that of friends in horror sci-fi The Alien Factor, effectively illustrating the yawning chasm that lies between keen amateur and talented professional. The film's aliens—an insectoid 'Inferbyce', a hairy, long legged 'Zagatile', and reptilian 'Leemoid'—are laughably bad creations, their naff appearance not exactly helped by Dohler's dreadful direction, which does nothing to hide their cheesy homemade nature.Dohler also commands pathetic performances from his wooden cast, achieves an astonishingly leaden pace, and even has the audacity to attempt an ironic twist ending—which is handled about as well as one might imagine (ie. badly). Making the film even more unbearable are the terrible editing and completely tuneless electronic score (someone got a new synth for Christmas but never read the manual).Some reviewers have commented rather favourably about the last alien, the Leemoid, but all I could see was a poorly designed and jerkily animated stop-motion monster badly composited onto the live footage. As far as I am concerned, the most entertaining things about the whole film were the hairstyles, which are far more horrific than the man-eating monsters from outer space, and the pointless musical interlude from a rock band whose two minging groupies seem to be having a whale of a time.

ChiefGoreMongral The Alien Factor is a home brew that got some backing and has become a sort of minor cult classic. At this point I would like to say if you cannot overlook a movie of a lower budget for some of its shortcomings do not watch or rent The Alien Factor as on a big production level this movie blows. If you can overlook that however there is a few things of merit here...though little.The story is about an alien ship that is on its way back to its home planet when it crashes with its cargo of exotic alien creatures. The creatures (3 in total not counting the alien pilot) get loose and start killing people in the local town. I will first say that this story idea is pretty interesting and with the right budget I feel this could be a cool sci-fi horror film however the movie is too ambitious with the budget and though the aliens look surprisingly decent for the restrictions that I'm sure they had, the overall product just sort of falls flat.Though the aliens look OK we get a stop-motion monster that had a cool design but the fight sequence its involved in was not so cool. To explain it would be futile, you would have to see this to understand. Also the acting was so-so even for a low budget flick like this and locals of the Baltimore/DC area will notice old school Creature Feature and current web host flick host Gore De Vol (who now has his own website at http://www.countgore.com/) acting as a mayor in this film.Of all the real problems I had the main problem and the reason I really cannot give this a decent review is....pacing. Man was it painful. There are 1 to 2 minute lulls of us watching a characters walk through the woods with nothing but synthesizer music going on. We await something to happen but in most cases it doesn't. It is these cases alone that hurt this film. I can look past mediocre effects, I can look past so-so acting as long as the story is interesting (which this movie had going for it somewhat) but when the pacing is off it can really mess up a movie and its flow.In conclusion I did not hate this movie as the monsters on display were decent and the story was something that kept my interest but poor pacing and some ho hum sequences in this film bring it down in the end.Score 4/10: Below Average, Check it out for the monsters and story just don't be surprised if you find yourself reaching for the fast forward button on your remote. Again not horrible just alittle bland.The Alien Factor is out though Retromedia (associated with Image)(www.retromedia.org) on DVD. There is a regular version and a 2 movie on a flipper disk (ala MGM Midnight Movies) with another film by Don Dohler called Fiend (dare I watch that one?) The 2 Movie release is under the title Alien Fiend: The Don Dohler Collection.Thats it for now folks. I leave you with this fun fact I learned from Alien Factor...Aliens love to wear Blue Jeans.See you Pygmies Later!!