Anyone who knows me or who's familiar with my personal review site, B-Movie Central, knows that I absolutely love classic b-movies.  They have a charm and an innocence that's been lost in today's world of modern social behaviors and high tech productions.  Whenever a new retro style film comes out, I'm always anxious to see it, because some of them like Christopher R. Mihm's retro films, manage to capture the charm of the old days beautifully, while others...not so much.

Alien Trespass is about a flying saucer that malfunctions because of sabotage and ends up crashing on the Earth near a small, desert town.  Once the ship has crashed, the alien creature that sabotaged it escapes, and it's not the job of his captor to retrieve the dangerous alien and leave the planet before the alien has the chance to kill enough and obtain enough nutrients to divide itself.  To that end, the alien, Urp, takes over the body of a local professor named Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack), and then enlists the help of a free spirited artist slash waitress, Tammy (Jenny Baird) to retreive the alien.  Add into the mix some somewhat ignorant sheriffs including Dan Lauria (the father from The Wonder Years) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2 & The X-Files), some local teenagers who have more of a clue about what's going on than the cops, a one eyed alien that grabs people with it's tentacle and dissolves them, and can also turn invisible at will, and a very confused Lana Lewis (Jody Thompson)  who's suddenly very confused about the behavior of her husband, and you have one really crazy film.

Alien Trespass is the latest retro film to cross my desk.  This one has a considerably higher budget than many I've seen, but did that translate into it being better than the others.  In some ways yes, while in other ways, it really had no bearing one way or the other.

The way's that a higher budget influences a film is that it allows you to cast a higher class of acting talent, plus it allows you to give the film the proper look with great costumes, genuine classic cars, appropriate props, etc...  This film took advantage of its budget to create a great, classic looking b-movie style film.  The one thing that budget doesn't really affect that can have a huge impact on whether films like this work or not, is the acting talent and the creativity with the monster...whatever it is.

Now you're probably saying to yourself, "But wait, didn't he just say that a higher budget does affect the acting talent?"  Well, yes I did.  It's true that a higher budget allows you to hire quality, professional acting talent who can pull off pretty much any role you throw at them.  However that's not to say that there aren't a lot of plain ol' low paid indie actors who can pull of those roles just as well.  There are lots of them out there.  What the budget buys you are the names on the DVD cover.  Who honestly has no clue who Dan Lauria and Robert Patrick are?  When you stick actors in your film that are highly recognizable, you give it more credibilty in people's minds and they're more likely to pick it up and check it out than they would be some low budget indie flick with no recognizable names at all.  That doesn't mean the acting is necessarilly better though in the one with the name actors.  I've also seen people like Christopher R. Mihm do a great job with the classic look and style of their films, with a considerably lower budget.  So budget does have some effect, but it's not the be-all and end-all of creating a good film.  For that, you really need quality acting and a great story.  Does this film have that?  Definitely!

The great thing about this film is, it's just fun.  It stays true to the genre, while at the same time throwing in some modern touches.  To be honest, usually having any kind of CGI in a film like this would put me off it big time, but in this one it was generally tolerable and mostly limited to a few minor things here and there.  Basically, there was nothing that got in the way of the story or ruined the look too awful much, though I would have preferred if they hadn't used it for the shots of the UFO flying at the beginning and end of the film.  That could have been so much cooler and more fun if they had just used a model on a string like they did in the good ol' days.

The cast in this film was stellar.  There wasn't a single bad performance.  Even the teenagers managed to pull off the feel of kids from the late 50's without becoming annoying in any way.  Dan Lauria as the sheriff who was two days from retirement reminded me a lot of his character in The Wonder Years.  He actually played it with much the same personality.  Pissy, just wanted things to go smooth and to be left alone, etc...  Robert Patrick plays a semi-lecherous sheriff who just wants to come to his own comfortable conclusions and not listen to anyone else.  I was actually surprised at how much he's aged between when I saw him last on The X-Files and now.  Dan Lauria always kinda looks the same.  He never changes much.  Eric McCormack played his role as both the professor and the alien Urp quite well.  His performance as both characters had a distinct style and yet a similar stiffness to them.  Jenny Baird as the waitress Tammy also played her role beautifully.  She came off as someone who was tired of their job and tired of their life and just wanted to get out of there so she could pursue her true passion, which was art.

The alien in the film was quite creative as all.  A big blobby type of alien with one big eye and a long tentacle that dissolved its victims.  How cool is that?  Plus it can become invisible!  That saves some time and money for the film makers now doesn't it?  In any case, it was a fun monster and worked really well in this film.

The setting of the film, including the town, houses, props, interiors and even the cars all had a great retro look to them.  The cars were nice too, but they weren't all flawless and restored looking, as you can often see in these films.  The reason you see that a lot is because for many film makers, the only cars they can lay their hands on from that era are all pristine.  The ones that haven't been restored are usually not worth putting in a film at this point.  So it's kind of a choice you make, and something else that the budget affects.  Not only how many of these cars you can have in your film, but also the ability to fabricate or rent them from a larger studio who can produce vehicles with the right look.

Alien Trespass, in an all around way, succeeded where so many other retro style films have either come up short or just flat out failed completely.  It's a fun film and definitely one worth checking out, especially if you're a big fan of classic b-movies like I am.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://www.alientrespass.com.