Scott LeBrun Objectively speaking, the feature directing debut for Maryland-based regional filmmaker Don Dohler may be very crude and indicative of a very low budget at every turn. But while a movie like this may lack the spit and polish of typical Hollywood product, it has something that a lot of those big productions don't have: heart. "The Alien Factor" has the irresistible appeal of movies made by friends who just wanted to get together and have a good time. The design of the monsters shows some imagination, and overall this qualifies as cheese of the very best kind.A spaceship containing three dangerous alien creatures crashes to Earth. The creatures escape, and begin to slaughter various unlucky locals. The intrepid lawman on the case is Sheriff Cinder (Tom Griffith, who sports a great hairdo and mustache), who has the help of people like his deputy Pete (Richard Geiwitz) and Dr. Ruth Sherman (Anne Frith) and her nephew Steven (George Stover). Then along comes a mystery man, Ben Zachary (Don Leifert), and he seems to know more than he's letting on.This endearing bit of schlock often falls back on director Dohlers' dialogue, but when the monsters show up and are doing their thing, the movie is a great deal of fun. The tall monster, the "Zagatile" (performed by John Cosentino) is particularly delicious - wait until you get a load of the legs on this thing. The final monster, the stop motion created Leemoid, shows the most invention. The final quarter of "The Alien Factor" is definitely its best one.While there may be no Oscar contenders here among the cast, they create likable enough characters. Richard Dyszel amuses as a stereotypically sleazy mayor, and Mary Mertens is good as pushy reporter Edie Martin. That's Dohler himself playing Ernie, and his kids Greg and Kim can also be seen on screen.Kenneth Walker does the music score, which is sometimes positively goofy. Ernest D. Farino, who went on to have a substantial career in Hollywood, designed and animated the Leemoid and also devised the opening credits sequence.Most agreeable, for any lover of regional B cinema.Seven out of 10.

TheExpatriate700 The Alien Factor is a halfway decent low budget monster movie, following a small Maryland town plunged into chaos when several creatures intended for an intergalactic zoo are accidentally released. The film features low budget but surprisingly effective monsters, but it is hampered by stilted dialogue and wooden acting.The main thing The Alien Factor has going for it is its monster costumes. Although all of the monsters - with one exception - are obviously guys in suits, the suits themselves aren't that bad looking. Furthermore, the monster designs are creative and not just cookie cutter creatures you've seen a thousand times. The insectoid alien was especially impressive.However, good creature effects alone do not a great monster movie make. The film suffers from a weak script with awkward-sounding dialogue. The script never focuses on a single protagonist, weakening the overall plot. Moreover, the twist ending is telegraphed well in advanced. Still, this is a good monster movie for the undemanding or a boring afternoon.

Scott_Mercer I have to give Don Dohler some credit for doing what he did here, basically with the lowest of low budgets.You want to make a cool monster movie with almost no money? Okay, you'll be forced to use local yokels as the actors, a really generic script, poorly formed dialog and such a low budget that your police car is a seven year old two-door car with one siren suction-cupped to the roof.Plenty of creativity is brought to bear, and for its time, and its budget, this was a reasonable attempt at home made, waaaaay outside the Hollywood studio system filmmaking.But I can only go so far with such generosity. Terrible acting is terrible acting, no matter how you slice it. And apparently the direction didn't help, if these were the best line readings they got to use in the film. At least somebody like Ed Wood used professional Hollywood thespians in his cheaper-than-cheap productions. Uncompelling scriptwriting is uncompelling scriptwriting, no matter how you slice it. We have here a story that was done many times before this, and the "mind blowing twist" is not nearly as mind blowing or innovative as the filmmakers would have us believe.I recently saw the film as part of the recent "Cinematic Titanic" presentation of former MST3K folks, and on that basis, I can highly recommend watching. But like Manos: The Hands of Fate, and many other turkeys of yore, watching the versions done by MST3K people is just about the only way to get through these things.Movie by itself: 4 out of 10 Cinematic Titanic version: 8 out of 10

kharing From start to stop, this movie never ceased to hold my attention... because of all the campy things that butt up against one another. This movie has some of the roughest cuts between scenes that I have ever seen. The kicker was watching the credits and seeing all the Dohlers and Cosentinos that were involved in the production... making it clear that this was a true family/friend movie production.But it's not all bad; I think this movie may have had a chance if it weren't for the one thing that everyone lacked: PASSION. There were only a couple moments where people seemed to have any emotional connection to their characters. I LOVE the cars in the movie... especially that VW Squareback at the beginning.What struck me as the most hysterical is the big brown alien; it is clear that this was a man in a suit on stilts... if not, it what else would those awkward bulges be on the back of the legs? And of course, what is with that music? very weird music. Especially when the two men were walking up a hill to look at the crash wreckage and those three instruments were seemingly playing at random.Definitely a movie for those who like the old style movies that are full of obvious problems.