Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Bill Brooks This film has it all. There's the self-referencing clip from the Roger Corman original watched by the kid on TV. An ersatz 'Alien' type monster. A a Dr. who turns to the hypo as a method of child discipline. A policeman sharing evidence with all and sundry. An old judge loosing his clothes and wandering off. A town meeting. An appeal to gun law. The interfering damsel. Flashing lights, blurry camera work, flashback, illogical plot points, and some of the worst dialogue you'll come across in many a day. Great title, story by King, music by Bernstein, starring Kinski and Quaid, what could go wrong? Unfortunately it's Brian,not Stephen King;Charles, not Leonard or Elmer Bernstein;Natasha, not Klaus Kinski; Randy, not Denis Quaid.(Well,those last two may not be so bad but...) But, just think, there are some films that are so terrible that they are made and put on the shelf, never to be released. This one was not so much released as escaped. One point of interest, the film was dedicated to James H Nicholson, who died 29 years previous to this film, but he was partner of producer the improbably named Samuel Z. Arkoff (Flash Gordon anyone?) and it was his ante-penultimate film.

ender34 This modest little film packs a pretty good punch for anyone willing to take it for what it is. The story was well paced and the ending was unexpected (by me and I think by most posters). The performances were all at least adequate; Bobby Edner's was better than that. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of most of the reviews posted here. Half the reviewers couldn't spell Kinski's name even while they drooled over her looks. Many complained about the cheesy special effects (or rather 'effect' since there was only one), apparently unaware that the cheesiness was deliberate. Some reviewers seem not to have understood the denouement though it was clearly spelled out. Others seem to have watched the entire film expecting it to be a remake of its namesake and came away shaking their heads at the fact that it wasn't. I give the film a 7 (would be 7+ if there were such a rating) but this review thread as a whole rates a 3 (and that only because of a few posters who actually understood the filmmakers' intentions).

manuel-pestalozzi There are definitely too many references to other movies and story traditions in this flick. It starts like Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (the heroine driving a New Beetle – yech!), it continues with dark humor like a novel by Kafka (heroine with a badly defined mission comes to a strange place and meets a bunch of strangely hostile stereotype comic book characters of uncertain authority), then there's a whiff of Twin Peaks (hints of sexual abuse of minors and general depravity in the backwoods), then in comes E.T. (minor bonds with extraterrestrial), then it turns out that minor's mother was regarded by the populace as a kind of a witch and was treated accordingly. On top of that, there is a clear reference to a 50ies horror B-movie. (Hence the confusing title which has nothing to do with the story told here).The references in themselves are not really bad or a rip-off. However, it would have been more fun, had they tied all that stuff together in a more coherent, rigid and orderly fashion. The pairing of psychology and the supernatural clearly does not work here. I didn't manage to find out what story the movie wants to tell and I suspect its makers could never really make up their mind. This is a pity, as the cast is quite good. I hope Nastassja Kinski still has a long career ahead of her. Not only for her looks, but also because she really is a versatile actress who in my opinion still didn't get her share of good movie parts. Randy Quaid and Bobby Edner are equally convincing in their roles, within the apparent limits of the script. The same goes for the rest of the characters who are parodies or stereotypes.

Andreas Niedermayer Bobby Edner did a great job in here. I loved the way he projected his character's emotional confusion and how he dealt with his apparent alien heritage. How stirring is the scene when the alien monster approaches him by leaving a path of destruction and death behind it and young Bobby shyly whispers "Dad?" towards the creature? That's awesome. Despite a rather fine cast, the entire movie was an apparent cheap production and - to be very honest - the alien was a real shame. That's what happens to low-budget productions trying to create something beyond their financial capacity. The characters were shallow most of the time and the story did not develop in a too sophisticated manner. However, I liked the movie as a whole due to a) Bobby Edner, who just aced a very difficult and emotionally ambiguous role and b) the story, which had its good basic approaches nicely delivered and was interesting to follow. I'll award it with a 7 due to my personal preferences, though it normally is not to be rated above a solid 6.