Aliens who travel the galaxy searching for something to hunt and kill end up on earth. These creatures are clad in armour and use plenty of techy weapons to catch their game. Now, I used the word “game” instead of “prey” because prey means something that you catch to eat, but these hunters aren’t eating what they kill. If they did, I could use the word “predators” to describe them, and no one would be so silly to call these guys predators.
Anyways, in this Predator rip-off a bunch of jocks and cheerleaders end up as the game for the alien hunters. The production didn’t have a budget for a jungle so most of the film takes place in a modest loft and empty alleyways. The resident of that loft? That monstrous alien. Portrayed by Roddy McDowall. Roddy’s character isn’t really shy about being suspicious. He is blind, has a big ass red gem necklace and talks about being a hunter.
The 70-year-old Roddy isn’t the actual hunter, though. He controls some kind of robot or android wearing a costume from Masters of the Universe. That’s the true hunter and it starts picking off the students in a The Most Dangerous Game situation. The hunter is ruthless, but not particularly scary. Perhaps because the foley artist kind of went overboard with the 70s robot noises whenever it moves.
I’m a sucker for cheap 90s straight-to-video knock-off titles so I found the film charming in an inane way. McDowall is always fabulous in his own way, and the film also has the bully from A Christmas Story and Jerry Lewis’ love interest from The Nutty Professor. I also love when the filmmakers couldn’t do the most basic of research. It is explained that “they [not-predators] rarely hunt in this sector of the galaxy because their home world is many light years away.” The film also begins with text that says these are “inter-galactic predators.”
Inter-galactic means that it happens in at least two galaxies (Interstellar should have been called Intergalactic). The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way is 2.5 million light years away. They are inter-galactic but rarely go many light years away from their home world?
The film is directed by stunt-man Cole S. McKay and shlock legend Fred Olen Ray, who made many a great horror flick before he settled on directing TV movies with the word “Christmas” in the title. No, really, he has directed 18 films with “Christmas” in the title.
