Anyone around during the early 1980’s can easily empathize with why British director Harry Davenport created a malevolent extraterrestrial whose victim is a young boy. After being saturated daily by countless toys, clothing lines, lunchboxes, and videogames fashioned after Steven Spielberg’s E.T., even a Chihuahua–with its slightly askew alien-esque face–which failed to immediately respond to its beckoning owner prompted admiration. However, though welcome, Davenport’s Xtro missed its opportunity in that the director went too far as his bleak, though not maliciously nihilistic but nihilistic nonetheless, vision combines the biological absurdities of William Burroughs and David Cronenberg amid poor production values which register slightly above Stephen Chiodo’s Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
After un unexplained three year absence, Sam Phillips (Philip Sayer) returns to his wife, Rachel (Bernice Stegers), and his son, Tony (Simon Nash). However, Rachel had long since attempted to piece her life back together and begun dating her now live-in photographer boyfriend, Joe Daniels (Danny Brainin). As tension continues to mount between the males, due in part to Tony’s reigning favoritism for his biological father, Sam reveals to his son that he was abducted by aliens. He then proceeds to bite Tony, thus bestowing the gift of telekinesis to the boy. As time passes, Tony begins to hone his new gifts in malicious ways as his father starts to transform into an inhuman creature.
Honestly, outside of the sociological impetus for the film, there is little of note in relation to Xtro. This being said, Davenport and New Line had no qualms with placing their reactionary agenda foot first as one of the taglines reads “Some extra-terrestrials aren’t friendly” atop having Rachel note at one point during the film that she needs to phone home. Some have noted that the film is absolutely devoid of humor. Perhaps intentionally this is the case, but inadvertently, the film posits one very wry instance of implicit humor. Once she discovers what Sam has actually become, Rachel’s forthcoming complaint would be something to the effect of “My estranged husband’s trying to alienate my child.” Yet, for the situational ironies which happen to present themselves, there is little else to preoccupy the viewer.
Granted, New Line Cinema was well on its was to collapse during its production of Xtro (a year before the film company became the “House that Freddy Built” after the surprise success of Wes Craven’s masterpiece). Unfortunately, this compensation having been allotted, it is still hard to move beyond the shoddy production value and special effects, the latter of which Davenport continues to revert back to every other scene while contending with an extraneous subplot involving the Phillips’ housekeeper, Analise Mercier (Maryam d’Abo).
And that, folks, about sums up what little there is to say about Harry Davenport’s Xtro. Sure, there is the biological and surreal horror seen throughout as d’Abo debuts with everything she has (literally) in preparation for her role as Bond girl Kara Milovy. Yet, as critics of the genre perpetually remind us, gore and nudity does not a film make. In short, unless you were pissed off at the little brown bastard-child of Spielberg at the time, it is hard to appreciate Xtro.
Trivia tidbit: Xtro was initially, albeit briefly, listed as a “Video Nasty.” Its classification as such was revoked without explanation shortly after its release.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015