This is How Movies Should Be Made

Good idea lost in the noise

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

*** This review may contain spoilers *** *Plot and ending analyzed*A mix of the films, The Dark (1979), The Hidden (1987), I Come in Peace (1990), and Predator 2 (1990), it really does do much with the topic involved.First of all, the problem with Something Is Out There" (1988) is the sheer time itself. On TV, this clocked in at 5 hours, and what a waste of time. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it didn't.I like the corny intro and sappy 80' music, but not much else is worthy in this lazy production. Even the creature itself is hampered by fuzzy and dark camera work that obscures it. Rick Baker did the work on it.Well, the plot is layered with so many layers of filler, mostly the dumb cop arguing with everyone else. Family matters, his smoking addiction, and his relationship with the police commissioner's daughter played by a dull Kim Delaney, fills the run time.Robert Webber (12 Angry Men (1957), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and Midway (1976)) is the police commissioner. He's wasted in this sluggish production.A space prison ship that has some "evil" alien that takes over the mind's of the other prisoners destroys the power of the prison ship. A medical officer is the only one who survives, and well, she's hunting the alien on earth. She meets up an extremely unlikeable cop. His pal is George Dzundza. That's about it. They find the alien with relative ease. Throw in some stupid moments where everyone gets infected with the alien and then it ends.A lot of time is wasted on nothing at all, as I said, all they do is talk. What action there is doesn't have any dramatic effect at all. It all is a very tedious experience.

Its a shame this piece of 80's goodness went virtually unnoticed. You had a very sexy alien, a hard jawed and jaded cop, and a shapeshifting alien all brought together to do battle in Los Angeles. Sure, other movies have had similar plotlines but what set Something is Out There apart from the overall premise, was that the characters had weight to match their looks and agenda. Its not enough that the jaded cop is uninterested of all the grisly murders going on in LA, it turns out that they are caused by one alien trying to assimilate into a lifeform suitable for earth, but he doesn't believe in aliens. Until, he meets Ta'ra who is the sole survivor of her crew, duty bound to stop the alien unwitingly released on Earth. And before that happend she was a simple med tech on board her prison ship, interested in doing her job well, the occasional romantic interlude with a male crew member and catching up on the captured broadcast of "Crime Story". Suddenly their lives intertwine into a life or death battle with the unstoppable. It did well enough to become a series and most of the episodes were really decent, but the demographics just weren't there and most viewers probably were turned off that the hunt to stop the orignal alien never was completed. SciFi channel sometimes airs this series but it deserves better, at least a run on home video if not DVD.

"Something is Out There" is one of those rare made for commercial TV horror/SciFi movies that works. (Kind-of sort-of a SPOILER up next) It's plot was very similar to "The Hidden" but is different enough to hold its own (Actually, there are dozens of movies with the "aliens walk among us" theme, and I think there could be dozens more.) Unlike most TV movies of the time, this one does have reasonably good special effects. All in all, a good movie, although perhaps a bit lengthy. I rated it a 6 of 10.

I heard my parents talking about this TV movie that they felt was a little too violent and scary to have been shown on national TV. According to them, it would have been better for cable. That TV movie was 'Something is Out There'. They had taped it so they could watch some dumb sitcom instead. I felt a nagging urge to see what it was they were talking about.Man were they ever right. Not only was it really gory and freaky to boot, but it was one of the coolest TV films I've ever seen. You've got the mysterious killer mutilating NY residents, the hot chick who claims to be from from outer space, the drunk/loser detective, and one of the nastiest villains to ever grace the small screen.#1, I was taken for a loop. I thought the killer was jsut an ordinary psycho who loved to eviscerate joggers... but when it turns out to be an psychopathic alien fugitive that can disguise itself as anyone it wants, I was put into a mild state of shock.#2, For a TV film, the FX are awesome (for the time period). This was before the computer FX revolution, so they look 'real'. The alien villain is actually a very sweet looking puppet that is frighteningly insectiod-like.#3, The characters are fleshed out completely making the viewer actually care about them. The acting is impressive as well (especially the lusciousMaryam d'Abo).#4, Man is this thing sick. I have to give credit to the director, he's got balls. People get ripped apart from the inside out by the alien constantly in this flick. Not only that, but we get some nasty views of the alien's early victims that it was studying, plus some gross after the fact corpses.In the end, this is probably one of my favorite TV movies... or movies period. Where is this on DVD dammit! It was actually turned into a short lived television series featuring the same characters and actors, but the cool alien killer was nowhere to be found, thus making it pretty worthless.If it's ever shown on TV again, watch it... you won't regret it!