Alienator (1990)

My Friday night was Fred Olen Ray centered, but the two films I watched aren’t exactly in the good graces of many. “Alienator”, another “gem” of the cellar dwelling genre of bad scifi / horror where struggling actors just wanting a payday and others perhaps seizing the chance to hopefully get some notoriety (and others just probably happy to be in a film period) appear for limited screen time, where the budgets are small and sets depicting the future (the film has a space station “toilet bowl of the penal system” where Jan-Michael Vincent as the head of the execution penitentiary loves to lay in insults and fists to the stomach to the prisoners before they are evaporated in a chair) lack much pizzazz or impression—he, and his peers, later would direct porn comedies on these kinds of scifi sets—and the dialogue often leaves much to be desired. JMV is awfully grouchy in this film as its headlining star while PJ Soles is wearing this shirt with holes gut around her breasts, the former calling for the executions and the latter carrying them out. Not long before this, JMV was the highest paid television actor on Airwolf and now he’s reduced to gruntingly barking at folks with a scowl. Still, I think the guy had that It factor…sadly he squandered it through alcoholism. When he died not too long ago I watched some Airwolf in his honor. I own the entire series, looking over to my right occasionally where I have it to remind me of the star he once was. This kind of film reminds us of a star fallen on hard times. And it would only get worse. He’s reduced to scenes where he waits to hear word about whether or not bodybuilder, Teagan, as the titular cyborg escaped-prisoner hunter has located Kol (Ross Hagen), responsible for the murder of many innocents and sentenced to die. Kol has this punishment bracelet on his neck that constantly gives Kol pain and deprives him of breathing freely without agony. When he isn’t trading angst with anti-death penalty advocate (Robert Clarke), JMV is trying to rekindle romance with Soles, and I sure don’t blame him for that. She seems to be sending mixed signals, as if she sort of wants to but has doubts it will work. Meanwhile Kol, in a taken space ship, arrives at Earth, of course, crashing in a wilderness, eventually hit by a RV driven by Richard Wiley. Wiley, with girlfriend Dyan Ortelli, and “teenagers” (well, I don’t think anyone bought that bill of goods), Jesse Dabson and Dawn Wildsmith, are in the RV, soon requesting the assisting of John Phillip Law, a ranger stationed nearby. Kol goes in and out of consciousness while eventually alert and active enough to communicate to the others that Alienator wants him dead, while also attempting to convince them to kill her. Wiley is an incredible jerk, such an asshole with nothing good to say. Why the others would go anywhere with him, much less on an extended trip, is beyond me. Law, to his credit, brings a credibility and respectability to the film it really doesn’t deserve. Quarry, for whom I am such a fan, is utterly and contemptibly wasted in a nothing role as a doc called on to help Kol by Law’s Ward Armstrong. Alienator, for no reason whatsoever, fires one laser beam that sets Quarry’s Doc Burnside on fire. That damned robotic “gun” is odd in its behavior because its laser beams sometimes eviscerates anything in its path while other times just setting fire or exploding what it’s aimed at. Why that is when Alienator only fires the same way each and every time I have no answer for…maybe she intentionally has a setting that doesn’t always aim to evaporate whatever is the target unless instructed? Leo Gordon, a legend of western film and television, is eventually introduced as a Colonel whose war experience often comes up when talking about strategy with Law and the gang, all holed up in his home after Alienator does in Law’s cabin/ranger-station. Gordon’s combat experience and trouble believing them figure into conversations, but soon he’s a true believer as Alienator targets his home, looking for Kol. Soon Kol’s dark side reveals itself after he takes Wiley’s form. There is way, way too much lag time and this goes on too long when it doesn’t have to. This is at the most a 70 minute movie, truthfully, and it does appear the script was lengthened with excess scenes of characters waiting inside buildings (and the RV) much longer than necessary. Nonetheless that is the decision Olen Ray and his crew made to the detriment of pace and timing. Two old timers, played by Hoke Howell and Fox Harris (Harris dying not long after), are in the area trapping animals illegally for food, having the misfortune of trying to fend off Alienator with their shotguns, rendered to nothingness as a result…they were some okay comic relief to sort of take us away from so much time with Wiley and his bunch. Ward’s bravery and Kol’s idea of an electrical net give them advantage against Alienator but eventually Kol proves that he can’t be trusted. 1.5/5

*the audio effects fot the laser gun back-and-forth between Kol and JMV's guards is right out of 70s scifi television while the crazies gore effect has Kol attacking a guard with leeches that burrow in the victim's face! Pilato, of Day of the Dead (1985) fame, has a cameo as a tech officer on JMV's station. It is a role that doesn't benefit him at all.