A Brilliant Conflict

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Alien Presence is yet another DeCoteau horror movie. This time some grad students are accompanying their professor on a field trip to some kind of government installation where something weird is going on and... You know, it kind of makes my head hurt trying to describe the plot of this movie. I'll admit, for once, he does manage to come up with a decent idea, but it's essentially a ripoff of other alien invasion movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. As usual, the cast is a bunch of pretty young people who can't act their way out of a Maxi-Pad commercial, and I guess it's one of the more watchable DeCoteau films, but that's not really saying much, is it?

No reasonable person has high expectations for a film directed by David DeCoteau. There's only one reason to watch them, and that's a handful of cute young guys with their shirts off for significant portions of the movie. If there's anything even remotely resembling a coherent storyline or competent acting, well, that's just gravy. Sadly, several of the boys in this film don't take anything off at all and the storyline and acting are weak even for DeCoteau. Worse, DeCoteau indulges his habit of using every frame of film he shoots. There are endless pointless shots of trees, endless shots of people moving at half-speed for no reason. It's 45 minutes of story padded to an hour and a half. Don't waste your time or, if you really want to see the cute boys, just fast-forward.