Review of Xtro (1982) by Robben M — 02 Sep 2009

With a title like XTRO, you better know what to expect.

This is a personal favorite of mine, as it is one of the most intriguing and surreal B-sci-fi movies ever made; it might even be one of my top candidates for "movies that are begging to be remade".

XTRO is a little British video nastie, as it was dubbed, when the days of Z-cinema on the video tapes could allow the children of the eighties to indulge in forbidden horrors of low-budget gems and extravaganzas that were exploitive, yes, but strangely unforgettable.

XTRO is no exception. What makes it unusual is its bizarro themes, strange sequences, perhaps intentional or maybe un-intentional surreal look, and some gross, yet wholsome special effects.

The story: Tony saw his dad get taken away by aliens in a glittering space ship. His mom didn'[t see it, and she believed him to have simply vanished or worse, run off with someone else.

A couple years later, Tony's dad, Sam, returns, albeit not in quite the fashion everyone hoped.

To put it simply, the ship drops off a scary looking alien. It gets hit by a motorist, and so it kills him. Then it drops by a house and attacks a woman by impregnating it.

She falls unconscious, only to awake a moment later to the terror of her ginormous belly! She's pregnant! The alien body is dead, but in one of the most memorable sequences, Sam emerges from her womb, full grown and naked. She dies of course, or maybe not. She simply vanishes from he narrative altogether.

In any case, Sam goes home, much to his wife's, Rachel, surprise. You see, she has a new boyfriend, a pretty nice guy who has been trying to gain the trust and love of Tony. That all goes out the window with Sam's intrusion. His explanation for his dissapearance is odd; his behavior, doubly so. He likes to eat snake eggs and inhale the tubes from the fridge. He also makes strange remarks to Tony. His son listens with rapt attention and it becomes fairly clear that Sam is definitely not human.

The rest of the movie becomes odder and odder as Sam reveals more and more of himself, Tony forms a strong "alien" connection with his dad, and the strangely hot babysitter is suddenly spewing bubble eggs from her..."sack".

The film makes no pretense about itself. This is a low-budget horror film with lots of gross outs and the like. But for some reason, a lot of it is just compelling. The lack of explanation for most things makes the entire picture enigmatic, almost opaque, like a dark art film. Some scenes adopt strange colors for no reason. When Tony learns about his dark 'alien' powers, he summons a midget clown, made from one of his toys. Suddenly, we've got canned applause and a stage light focused on the little clown.

It's all incredibly weird but for whatever reason, highly effective.

Some moments are just out and out ridiculous, but this is a good thing. One part involves an annoying neighbor lady whom Tony hates because she killed his pet snake. So he gets revenge by summoning one of his soldier toys to full size. Except its face is all plastic looking. It should be hilarious, but you can only cock your head in confusion.

My personal favorite part is when the babysitter invites her boyfriend to the home and is perpetually attacked by Tony's toys, which then ends with him getting killed by a PANTHER for no reason! It comes out of nowhere and is only briefly acknowledged for a moment at the very end of the movie. Still, it kind of catches you off guard.

But not for a moment think it has any aspirations of grandeur. It just happens to have some striking moments. The ending is truly out there is terms of look and design, which, I might, includes the coolest space ship ever. The reason for this being it is nothing more than a ginormous hunk of light and sparkles, which, for whatever reason, is completely at odds with the general monstrous look of the alien. And yet, like before, it all comes together in an odd way.

In the end, it's still a fun B-movie, with lots of violence, gore, and gratuitous nudity (remember, bond girl as the babysitter). But I can't help but refer to it in my mind. Perhaps it's that nasty scene with the birth, or maybe it's the surreal humor that sort of just happens whenever a crazy event occurs. It's hard to say.

One thing of note: there are two endings. Reportedly, the one in the film is the alternate one. The original ending was to show the final outcome of the eggs spewing out of the babysitter.

But instead we get a typical shock ending that makes no sense. Doesn't matter, it caps off the general weirdness nicely anyway.

XTRO. See it if you can, albeit with copious amounts of salt and popcorn.