Alien Trespass: Movie Review

Alien Trespass (R.W. Goodwin, 2009)

Eric McCormack stars as physicist Ted Lewis, a big brained scientist—you can tell because he smokes a pipe. After a UFO crashes in the Mojave, Ted becomes host to Urp, a space ranger with Klaatu’s fashion sense. He’s out to recapture the Ghota, a hungry space slug that may have been spawned from the same brood that gave us the evil vegetable overlord of It Conquered the World. Along with Ted/Urp, all of the familiar character tropes are on hand and the film plays out exactly as to be expected, hitting every beat.

Opening up with a newsreel that sets up Alien Trespass as a “lost film” from the ‘50s, viewers will find that R.W. Goodwin’s film is a faithful recreation of sci-fi films from the era. Unfortunately, the film is a little too faithful. Unlike other films over the last few decades that have spoofed Atomic Era creature features such as Invasion! (1999) and Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001), there’s no sense of subversiveness in this button-downed pastiche. It plays out as a faithful homage rather than any kind of parody, leaving viewers to question the necessity of this film. Why not stick to the classics instead?