70s films made with earnest inaptitude have a certain charm. The film makers wanted to make films, but it wasn’t like they could watch other films on repeat to learn the finer details of things like editing. They just had the cinema and whatever came on TV. One funny editing “mistake” you can often find in these films is a mid-scene edit from the same angle. There is a cut but the objects in frame are just slightly closer post-edit. It’s jarring but charming, in a way.
The Alien Factor is about a small town that has the misfortune of having a UFO crashing near it. Unlike Roswell, this one has alive aliens, and they are monsters. The aliens go on a rampage, killing unsuspected teenagers in their 30s. One of the aliens manages to communicate with a human and informs him that it was shipping these other aliens to a zoo on his home planet. That alien has a bad white wig. Then another alien comes to help. It’s kind of the plot from Critters.
The aliens are either people in rubber suits or stop motion sculptures. They don’t look half bad. The actors are much more rubbery with their bad 70s haircuts and I’m not sure if what they are doing most of the time constitutes as acting rather than just reading.
These films are zero budget schlock, either made from passion or a quick buck. The Alien Factor was directed, written, edited, produced and probably catered by Don Dohler, a notable figure in schlock, so it was probably made from passion. It’s quite entertaining.
