Extraterrestrial

The Vicious Brothers are a talented writing and directing duo that make really well done B-horror movies. While the elements of their films steal from many a horror film past, they manage to do so in ways that thrill and entertain. Their previous low-budget feature "Grave Encounters," and its surprisingly fun follow-up "Grave Encounters 2," relied liberally on the "Paranormal Activity" found-footage gimmick, but still managed to earn their scares.

Their third feature, "Extraterrestrial," shows a similar flair (with only a momentary foray into found-footage), but the elements that seem familiar start to wear thin. After an intense opening where a terrified woman ("Ginger Snaps" Emily Perkins) is whisked away while making a call in a phone booth, things settle down for a good half hour.

April (Brittany Allen) is college graduate heading to her mother's cabin in the woods to take pictures so it can be sold. Her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma) asks to come with her and, before you know it, he's invited three of their other friends to join. As per usual, the fact that these five people are even friends is suspect. Seth (Jesse Moss) is the overly crass dude who just wants to party and have sex. His girlfriend Lex (Anja Savcic) is a dim bulb, and Melanie (Melanie Papalia) is April's childhood friend, with a devil-may-care attitude and the short-shorts to match. With April being incredibly self-sufficient and down-to-earth, it's confusing why any of these people hang out together. But hang they do, and into to the woods they go.

Once there, we have the requisite party montage and a poorly timed proposal. As emotions flare, a "plane" crashes in the woods, momentarily distracting the five from their issues. But the plane isn't a plane after all: It's an alien spacecraft, and something seems to have gotten away from the wreckage.

What follows is a standard "monster in the house" movie, with a standard gray alien as the monster. While there are moments of suspense and the film is shot wonderfully, nothing happens plot-wise to really expand the genre. It isn't until the last twenty minutes where things take an imaginative turn.

Thankfully, most of the actors do a fine job, and Allen makes for an effective heroine. The directing and editing style that the Vicious Brothers bring to their work elevates the film to a better-than-average level, and for a while you don't notice the flaws because of it. But the "running away from the nasty aliens" trope grows tiresome in the second act. Most of the time we are just watching the body count pile up and wondering why an advanced intelligence relies on violence to get revenge and/or disable their victims in order to study them.

Once we enter the final act, things get interesting and the film's budget is on full display. Unfortunately, the answer to the lead character's dilemma is a bit of a let-down, and the ending is kind of a bummer. The Vicious Brothers clearly have talent to spare, and with bigger and bigger budgets, I'm looking forward to what they can do with it.