Some people consider 1950′s era drive-in science fiction a low point in American cinema. It is true that a lot of garbage came out of studios who green-lit half-hearted scripts because they included space aliens or nuclear energy in them. Although several well made classics came out in the same time span, the stigma of the B movie is a hard one to shake. While there is no reason to be ashamed of enjoying the cheese, what reason would anyone have in making a film now that is intentionally cheesy? A movie that is part bad-sci-fi celebration and part bad-sci-fi parody is Alien Trespass, the story of an invasion in 1950′s America. Eric McCormack plays Ted Lewis, an astronomer that one clear night in his home near a California desert, prepares a wedding anniversary celebration with his wife loving wife Lana (Jody Thompson). Ted sees a bright shooting star in the night sky, which turns out to be a flying saucer that crashes in the desert. On board the ship are two extraterrestrials. One is the dangerous Ghota, a tall, one-eyed, tentacled beast that was being escorted as a prisoner by Urp, a silvery humanoid that is very Gort-esque. Ghota escapes into the desert and begins on a plan to devour the locals so he can self replicate. Ted investigates the crash site, thinking it is a meteor, when he is confronted by Urp, who merges with Ted to better move about the town to locate Ghota. The next morning Urp, in the form of Doctor Lewis, returns to the Lewis household, acts really weird, and discovers that salt will harm the Ghota. Lana believes that her husband is suffering from some kind of illness or stress related condition, and does not believe his story about aliens and such.
At the same time, a trio of teens head into the desert to see what people in the town had reported as some kind of plane crash. Penny (Sarah Smyth) and Dick (Andrew Dunbar) stay in the car while Cody (Aaron Brooks) looks around for a bit. While Cody is gone, the young couple is attacked by the Ghota and, in an attempt to escape, run into a pair of local cops. In true B movie fashion, the two officers (one of which is played by Robert Patrick) are very skeptical and critical of the teen’s claims of being attacked by a creature, and the group is hauled off to the station. Meanwhile, Tammy (Jenni Baird) a waitress who is out driving on a errand, sees Urp as Ted walking down the side of a desert road. She pulls over to pick him up, and after a lengthy conversation where Urp discusses his home planet and his current dilemma, Tammy agrees to help him stop the Ghota. This film has a strange dichotomy to it, where it seems to want to take itself seriously on some level, but will also point at itself and laugh from time to time. If the film were going for humor all the time by being intentionally bad, then I feel it would be pointless as anyone can make a bad movie on purpose. Most people probably wouldn’t enjoy this film, but if you grew up on corny sci-fi like I did, then it’s a nice little treat.
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