ALIEN OUTBREAK: FILM REVIEW

I don’t know about you, but all these COVID-19 developments and enforced quarantines and social isolations are really starting to get to me. So I figured I’d relax by putting on a nice soothing alien invasion movie called… Alien Outbreak?
 
Aw beans, I did it again.
 
Alien Outbreak is the second feature film from writer/director Neil Rowe, the VFX specialist who brought us Robot World. The film follows Zoe (Katherine Drake) a Police Sergeant who recently transferred from Canada to a sleepy British village where nothing ever happens… until an alien invasion threatens to change her life forever. It starts with a rash of suicides and violent attacks, and it’s quickly made clear that alien robot drones are running around injecting people with stuff and generally causing mayhem. An Armed Response Vehicle is on the way but the phones are disrupted, the village is cut off and they’re running out of time...
 
The first thing that’s immediately apparent as the film starts is that it’s fallen into the trap of poor audio quality like so many other low budget films. It’s tough to make out what people say sometimes, and this is exacerbated when Zoe speaks on the police radio. There’s a scene when she speaks to fellow copper Patrick (Ritchie Crane) who’s holed up in the station and he’s whispering over the radio to her about the situation there and it’s just so mumbly it’s impossible to hear. I often found myself straining to make out what was going on.
 
The sound quality does pick up for long stretches of the film, but sadly that just draws attention the film’s biggest weakness: the acting. Most line deliveries are flat and lifeless, and it rarely feels like the characters are reacting naturally to the peril they’re in. I really wanted to like Drake as Zoe, she seemed like a fun proactive character, but there was no spark there, nothing that made her interesting to follow. It was the same with everyone, they were just sort of there. It was difficult to root for them when they’re struggling to emote and react naturally. When Zoe first sees a robot drone, she might as well have seen a cat knocking something off a table. Mind you, when she’s first confronted with the possibility of a hostile encounter she grabs a shotgun she’d taken as evidence from a double suicide and goes full commando – did no one tell her that’s not how we do things over here? In fact, is it even possible for a police officer to transfer from Canada to the UK? Is that a thing? My suspension of disbelief took a bit of a blow there.
 
The film looks good, though – it’s slick and shiny and Rowe clearly knows how to stage a creepy scene. There are a couple of moments where Zoe is in the dark, lit only by her flashlight, with a robot skittering about unseen. Very effective stuff! It’s let down a little when she spots the creature, fires at it and sort of jogs away, with the enemy strolling after her practically whistling in nonchalance. I exaggerate there, but that’s what it feels like because there’s no strong musical accompaniment to highlight the danger, underpin the urgency and get your blood-pressure up. It’s a vital part of building tension, and while Rowe gets the visuals of it right, the sound mustn’t be neglected either. The shaky cam put me off initially, but it’s used appropriately here as it does create an intimacy that works well for the story; it sells the small-town isolation feel and provides Dutch angles aplenty to unsettle us. The special effects are mostly very good too; sometimes the robots don’t quite feel like there’s weight to them, like they’re present in the room (which of course they’re not), but that’s par for the course with most low-budget films. Rowe decided not to keep his enemies in the shadows, which would have dramatically upped their threat status. But they look fine, and the spaceships look brilliant.
 
The story is mostly fine, moving along at a steady pace as things go from bad to worse. People get infected and turn on their friends and themselves, and the inevitable march of the robots goes on. Yes, I keep saying robots instead of aliens. The thing is, for the majority of the film, the threat comes from the robot drones and their lightning-quick syringe strikes. We don’t see an actual alien until well past midpoint. Well, that’s not entirely true – we see them standing ominously, surrounding the police station like it’s Assault on Precinct 13. When we do finally see one up close, it’s in the best scene in the film. I’ll not spoil it for you, but suffice to say it’s a dark scene, tough to watch, and of course it leaves you wondering who the true monsters are. It’s just a bit disappointing that in a film called Alien Outbreak we mostly get robots. Feels like a bit of a cheat.
 
Speaking of not spoiling things, I really want to complain about the ending but, you know, can’t really without ruining it. Suffice to say it disappointed me with a twist from nowhere that really should have been seeded and foreshadowed throughout. Then again, perhaps it was and I missed it because it was in one of the mumbly bits. I didn’t see it coming, but then I didn’t even have the chance to. A great twist should feel like a piece falling into place and the whole puzzle finally making sense.
 
In all, Alien Outbreak is a bit limp but it’s clearly made with passion, which is the important thing really. One thing it’s certainly not is lazy, and you have to admire what’s been done with the budget it had. Perhaps with better acting and a twist with coherent roots in the story, this could have been a great little gem. As it is, it just about hits ok.
 
2 ginger biscuits out of 5

Review by Sam Kurd