Michael_Elliott
Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage (2001) * 1/2 (out of 4) Disappointing sequel has the FBI and a small town sheriff investigating some strange activities and before long they realize they're dealing with a deadly alien.Director Don Dohler made THE ALIEN FACTOR in 1978 and somewhat remade it in 1982 as NIGHTBEAST. I found both of those movies to be a lot of fun because the director manages to have a nice throwback to the 1950's drive-in era but he mixed in sex, gore and nudity. Twenty-three years after that original film he returned with this sequel but sadly the charm has pretty much warn off and you're left with a rather boring movie.I must say that on a technical level this here is probably the best film I've seen from the director. The film was obviously shot with a very low-budget but I thought the look was quite professional and there's no question that it was technically well-made for what it was. The problem was the fact that there just wasn't anything fun going on. The two films I previously mentioned at least gave us decent monsters as well as some very good gore scenes but that's not the case here. The monster looks extremely bad and I'd argue that the death scenes were boring and not very creative.The film has the bad performances that you'd expect but these here really weren't a major issue. The budget allowed for some cheap special effects but they certainly weren't interesting enough to draw you into the picture and it's really too bad that they got away from what made the original work so well.
Woodyanders
A lethal alien cyborg (Bill Ulrich in a gnarly rubber suit) terrorizes a small town in Maryland. The local police join forces with an FBI agent to stop it.Writer/director Don Dohler keeps the enjoyable story moving long at a snappy pace, maintains an engaging sincere tone throughout, and stages the exciting action with flair. Moreover, Dohler brings a winning sense of positively infectious go-for-it enthusiasm that's impossible to either resist or dislike. Granted, the acting from the uneven cast is decidedly hit or miss, but there are nonetheless admirably game contributions from Donna Sherman as no-nonsense sheriff Allison Smith, George Stover as earnest deputy Mickey Sinclair, Patrick Bussink as secretive fed Frank Love, Jonas Grey as brave munitions expert David Tackett, Anne Frith as old bag lady Aggie, and Shawn Doyle as the concerned Mayor Henry Kidd. The rinky-dink (less than) special effects further add to this film's rough around the edges homemade charm. The robust score hits the rousing spot. A fun little flick.
HumanoidOfFlesh
This unrelated sequel to Don Dohler's sci-fi/horror schlock "The Alien Factor" features an alien invader,who traps an entire town within it's time-warping forcefield.The local police and FBI agents try to stop the killing spree."Alien Factor 2:The Alien Rampage" is an ultra low-budget horror movie with pretty high bodycount and a little bit of blood.The action is fast paced,the special effects are solid and the rubber suit of an alien looks great.The cast is made up of some old friends of sadly deceased Baltimore film-maker Don Dohler including George Stover and Anne Frith.If you are a fan of "The Nightbeast" or "The Galaxy Invader" you can't go wrong with this vastly entertaining cheapie.7 out of 10.
jvmm
Baltimore's own Don Dohler has been crankin' em out since the late seventies beginning with THE ALIEN FACTOR. In 2001, Dohler finally answered his legion of fans (all 10 of 'em)and filmed ALIEN FACTOR 2:ALIEN RAMPAGE. And while I must admit that Dohler has improved a little in his film-making technique, he is still hampered by micro budgets which especially show during the special-effects scenes.As usual,the acting in this film ranges from decent to strictly amateur. A special nod goes to actress Ann Firths way over the top performance as an elderly bag lady;it borders on caricature.But throw in a neat monster,cheesy special-effects plus a- let's make a movie, gang!-atmosphere and you have a new millennium spin on the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland films of the 1940's where a group of friends put on a show in the barn for the local townsfolk.Amateurish,yes. Good? Not hardly. In fact, I wouldn't want to watch ALIEN FACTOR 2 again anytime soon. But in it's own homemade, shot in the backyard way, it's rather cute and endearing. A cinematic version of The Little Engine That Could.
AD
