Having seen this film as ‘Pod People’ multiple times throughout my life (and the MST3K Riffed version almost as much) I pretty much HAD to pick up Severin films lovely HD restoration of this film…mainly because, I hadnt seen the uncut version before, and I was quite curious about the differences and how they affect the pacing of the movie. The answe was quite a bit!
So this, from what I can gather is a US/Mexican co-production, and essentially an ET knockoff, Aliens crash land in the woods, hunters find a clutch of eggs and destroy most of them, but get attacked by a *bad* alien (not REALLY a bad alien…just one who’s scared and overly defensive) while the only surviving egg winds up in a young boys house and eventually hatches into an alien that the boy christens ‘Trumpy’…
Also a rock band end up out in the woods while travelling in a camper van, but when one of there groupies (basically the daughter of the boss of the record company) ends up getting injured by the ‘bad’ alien, they head over to the young boys house and all try to recover and make plans to head home, while the boy tries to hide Trumpy from everyone…hilarity ensues…
The ‘Pod People’ cut of this film removes most of the opening sequence of the hunters chilling in the woods, removes the strongest aspects of the cursing, some nudity, tones back the violence…it basically retunes this into being an out and out kids movie. But in this *uncut* version of the film, all of thats restored…and im not entirely sure if its for the better.
For a starters the opening act of the hunters in the woods is now much MUCH longer…and it dragged in the ‘Pod People’ cut so here its basically insufferable. with the violence and a couple additional scenes put back in it basically means we dont really get to see ‘Trumpy’ in action till around the 40 minute mark of this 84 minute long film. And when he does turn up, its only for very narrow windows of time, with the rest of the time either being the rock group floudering around in the woods of the cabin, or the kid having arguements with his mum, OR the evil alien picking off memebers of the band.
The script itself is frankly bizarre no matter which cut you check, but for my money, I feel the ‘Pod People’ cut just manages to trim enough out to keep it lean, while also still maintaining that disorienting vibe that really kept me hanging on throughout. Because this films frankly ludicrous in places and trumpy looks like a shrivelled winky.
Tonally; I dont know who this movie is for, bearing in mind the cut version of this film that WAS child friendly came out between 1987 and 1990 and this uncut version had existed since 1983. I really cant think who (other than me and folk like me) would be willingly sitting down to this. The conventional audience of young children are ruled out because of the violence, shots of boobs and hard swearing (F-bombs get dropped in this cut) Teens wont watch it because OUTSIDE of the above, this IS essentially a kids film, adults wont watch it unless they’re under the influence of something and if its a family movie, it’ll be the last family movie night you hold quite honestly.
While it is a bit of a drag in the first act, and its dissapointing that Trumpy doesnt actually show till almost halfway through the movie (and doesnt even really do anything until the final act) the film is still deleriously entertaining in places, with frankly bizarre scenes that are only enhanced by the English voiceover dub for the film thats badly timed, weirdly worded and feels like a literal translation of the spanish spoken originally, rather than the a more naturalistic translation that would have maybe made the film feel less demented.
The characters are all either pretty unlikeable, strange or strange and unlikeable, non of them have any real complexities beyond what you’re seeing on screen…Honestly, this thing wouldnt no subtle if it came tap dancing in wearing neon.
The direction and cine, given the budget are actually kind of impressive, and the HD transfer has scraped years of mould and VHS fuzz off the 4:3 cropped image to present a film thats absolutely creaky as of 2024, but absolutely looks better than expected given the nature of how this film was made.
In particular, I found the chronic use of fog machines to be endearingly strange as a creative choice and really helps give the feeling of isolation, the stop motion ‘Trumpy’ magic sequences are honestly some of the strangest creative decision making pieces that i’ve seen in a good while and I actually really kind of liked the colour usage here..in the beige and brown world that was 1977-1985, mixing in reds,blues,greens and yellows really helps bring this thing to life and gives it a HELL of a boost over other ET knock offs such as ‘Nukie’ or ‘Badi’.
Sequences are fairly robust, theres good use of B-roll, the editing is a little jerky and doesnt so much invite the audience in…more slap the finished film in front of them for better or worse. composition is certainly memorable and for better or worse, it at least had the budget to make an ET knock off that felt like some money had gone into it…
The performances are all eccentric, over the top and manic, very animated and when combined with the lithium inspired Voice over work on the english dub, the result is easily the best thing about this film and EASILY the biggest reason to check it out.
And the soundtrack? so eccentric and interesting that Severin included a CD copy with the bluray release. I will ALWAYS hear ‘Idiot control now’…
I have a real soft spot for ‘Pod people’ and between this and that cut? I’d choose the kid friendly ‘Pod People’ version anyday. This however is still a really fun little movie, imperfect. but delightfully bizarre and plain weird in places. If you havent seen ANY of the cuts of this movie…I’d check out the MST riffed version in the first instance, if you like that, THEN go and check out this cut. Otherwise; this cuts fine enough…but its not my personal favourite.
‘Trumpy! YOU CAN DO STUPID THINGS!’
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/extraterrestrial-visitors/
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