Movie review and director audio interview: Alien Trespass

by John P. Meyer

Alien Trespass, a film by veteran X-Files writer/director/producer R.W. Goodwin, pays nostalgic tribute to those great cheesy sci-fi flicks of the '50s. It's loaded up with all the conventions of those shivery classics, including the desert locale, the teenage couples on a deserted lovers lane, the eccentric old coot living alone in a shack with his dog, the theremin music, the body snatching... even the ridiculous rubber-suited monster. In other words: all the things that made watching one of those movies so darn entertaining.

Rather than taking a fun-poking approach to the genre, Goodwin's film treatment (from a script by James Swift and Steven P. Fisher) plays it straight, maintaining more of a reverential tone than any sort of mocking one. In fact, if you didn't know better, you might think this was the genuine item: some kind of lost print from a disused Hollywood basement, unearthed from a construction site after the building was demolished.

Which is EXACTLY what the filmmakers had in mind, as you'll see in the film's opening minutes as the mythical background behind its pedigree is explained in classic pre-movie newsreel fashion.

As director Goodwin explains in our interview, even the vivid, saturated colors of the film (which was shot using - GASP! - real film stock) are reflective (and transmissive!) of the referenced movies - even though loads of kids like me first saw them on (black & white) television sets and thus assumed they were originally filmed in black & white.

The story concerns a "meteor" that crashes into the earth outside a little town in the Mojave desert (with arid eastern British Columbia standing in for purposes of the filming). Lots of local folks see the flash and hear the boom of the impact, including debonair astronomer Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack) and his lovely Rita Hayworth-look bride, Lana (Jody Thompson); parked-car trysters Penny (Sarah Smyth) and her mild-mannered boyfriend Dick (Andrew Dunbar); and lonely shotgun-wielding hermit Wilson (Tom McBeath) and his loyal canine friend, Merlin.

Leaving a plate-sized t-bone steak to go cold - not to mention his lovely wife - Ted heads up to the butte to see if anything remains of the impacting bolus- and finds more than he bargained for.

When he returns from the crash site, Ted is no longer Ted: his body is inhabited by an intelligent (though not precipitously so) life form from space who refers to himself as "Urp." His third person references to Ted cause Lana to become concerned - as does the sudden appearance of a ray gun.

Meanwhile, officer Vernon (Robert Patrick, whose mildly sinister nature is evidenced by his come-ons to the local waitressing corps) poo-poos the series of monsters sightings that start coming in - particularly since they originate with those no-good teenage kids, including Brylcreemed bad boy Cody (Aaron Brooks). Not to worry: Vernon will get his in the end - or closer to the middle, actually, leaving tough-as-nails Chief Dawson (veteran character actor Dan Lauria) to deal with the messy cleanup.

Since McCormack's character is of two minds, he (the lucky stiff) gets two girls, the second being a comely and resourceful waitress at the local diner named Tammy (Jenni Baird). Tammy already has something of a crush on the dapper astronomer, so when she sees him wandering down the deserted highway in the middle of the night she stops her car to give him a lift. Only to discover that he's out of his mind - and Urp is in it.

The rest of the tale follows Tammy's attempts to help Urp round up the monster before it can clone itself or digest the town's entire population, whichever comes first. Events culminate at the local movie house as Tammy and a vintage Electrolux briefly come to the rescue of panicked movie-goers.

With its gorgeous color cinematography, classic B-movie references and period-correct over-emoting, Alien Trespass might end up being a fun choice for a slightly-shivery, chuckle-worthy, kid-friendly family film outing. It opens in regular release this Friday (April 3) at both the Angelica Plano and Magnolia.

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When the film played at the AFI Dallas Film Festival on Saturday night (March 28), I had a chance to sit down and talk with R.W. Goodwin about his movie.

Apologies for the background hubbub you'll hear in the audio (particularly in the first few minutes) - the people sharing the AMC Northpark courtesy suite with us were the cast and crew of Peter and Vandy, including lead actor Jason Ritter (who Bob references during our interview).

Listen up to discover:

* To which movies the script pays direct homage

* What it was like working with a dog on the set - not to mention Robert Patrick and Dan Lauria

* What sci-fi films are R. W. Goodwin's favorites

* Whether there will be a sequel

That is all, Earthlings.