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Alien Storm Review
Image Credit: Mahal Empire
Loading...Alien Storm Review
Kevin Sorbo– President Nolan
Tom Arnold– Mayor Walker
Robert Standley– Frank McConnely
Laura Mason– Ophelia McConnely
Molly Jean Edwards– Grace McConnely
Denny Nolan– Cole McConnely
William Delesk– Bernie McConnely
Elley Ringo– Jenna Fishel
Greg Tally– Solomon Justice
Johnny Huang– DJ Beetz
Charles Wright– The Godfather
D’Lo Brown– D’Lo Brown
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Adam Werth
Screenplay by Adam Werth, based on a story by Michael Mahal and Sonny Mahal
Produced by Mahal Empire, Wicked Monkey Pictures, Stag Mountain Films, Spicy Ramen Productions, and Hosscat Productions, in association with ZapruderFlix
Not Rated
Runtime– 74 minutes
Alien Storm is currently available to rent via Amazon Prime here and Apple TV here
Alien Storm, written and directed by Adam Werth and currently available to rent through Amazon Prime and Apple TV, is a nifty low-budget sci-fi/horror flick with some terrific looking alien monsters achieved mostly through practical special effects. The movie is also a sort of sci-fi homage of the original Night of the Living Dead, something I just wasn’t expecting. Yes, some of the performances are rough around the edges and the movie could have used a little more from both top billed stars Tom Arnold and Kevin Sorbo, but Alien Storm is still a worthwhile low-budget sci-fi/horror flick.
Alien Storm stars Robert Standley as Frank McConnely, a rich businessman holding a big party at his mansion in Las Vegas. Hosted by himself and his wife Ophelia (Laura Mason), the party is filled with family, with other rich people, celebrities (WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather hisself Charles Wright is there along with fellow pro wrestler D’Lo Brown), and the mayor of Las Vegas, Mayor Walker (Tom Arnold). The party also has a local media presence, too, with reporter Jenna Fishel (Elley Ringo) there to try to get an interview with Mayor Walker (among other things). The event seems to be going well, and then everyone gets a major news alert on their phones about an unexpected presidential address regarding some sort of ongoing worldwide emergency.
Worldwide emergency? How the hell does a worldwide emergency sneak up on everyone?
So everyone watches the presidential address where President Nolan (Kevin Sorbo) tells the country to be mindful of what appears to be a strange fog enveloping major cities worldwide that hobbles electronics and communications. The U.S. government isn’t entirely sure what the fog is or where it came from, but the government does know that it’s dangerous and it would be best if people just stayed inside. At least that’s what they tell people. There are people in the U.S. government, like some military officials and members of the president’s cabinet, that know the fog is likely extraterrestrial in nature and they don’t presently have any sort of defense against it.
As the news hits Las Vegas, the alien fog starts creeping in. Frank and Ophelia invite everyone at the party to follow President Nolan’s advice and stay at their mansion, as they apparently have a fully stocked bunker they can all stay and live in until the “alien fog situation” is better understood. Some of the guests take the McConnely family up on their offer to stay, while others decide to leave and try to make it back to their own homes. The McConnely bunker is spacious and resembles an underground house and it is beyond fully stocked. The McConnely bunker not only has plenty of food and water, but it also has an armory.
So then some stuff happens, everyone that sticks around at the McConnely mansion heads down to the bunker, but daughter Grace McConnely (Molly Jean Edwards) and her uncle Cole (Denny Nolan) delay their trip to the bunker to look for a missing pet. As Grace and Cole search for that missing pet, the weird fog becomes thicker and thicker, and what’s inside the fog reveals itself.
What’s inside of the weird fog?
There are alien monsters in the fog. With formidable claws and razor teeth, these alien monsters ferociously attack any and all humans they come in contact with (at the very beginning of the movie a U.S. army recon team is attacked by the alien monsters out in the desert, so we see how dangerous the alien monsters are before we see them invade Las Vegas). Will the McConnely family bunker keep everyone inside of it safe?
What surprised me about Alien Storm is that it isn’t a romp, despite the presence of Tom Arnold. With the way the Las Vegas McConnely party plays out before the presidential address, you almost expect the movie to be funny/more of a comedy once the alien monsters arrive. On top of the presence of Arnold and the two pro wrestlers, there’s a pool guy named Solomon Justice (Greg Tally) that looks like a guy that is the president of a Guy Fieri fan club of some sort (or a Guy Fieri stunt double). Are we supposed to take anything here seriously? And then the fog arrives in Las Vegas, the alien monsters reveal themselves, and the alien monsters start killing people. And these alien monsters make an effort to kill anyone that they come across. Anyone. It does not matter who or what they are, the alien monsters will kill them.
The eventual alien monster siege on the McConnely family bunker is shockingly brutal, both when the people in the bunker try to keep the aliens out and when the aliens eventually get inside (and that isn’t a spoiler because there is no movie if the alien monsters don’t get inside of the bunker at some point. It was going to happen). While the siege could have been even bloodier and nastier, what we do get to see is very, very messy. The alien monster suits are well done and do something that I absolutely love to see in this kind of movie; yes, the alien monsters do sort of look kind of weird and rubbery, but when the audience gets to see the alien monsters in action, all bets are off. You do not want to be attacked by these space creatures. There is nothing actually goofy about these alien monsters. You want to avoid them at all costs because they will fucking kill you. Some of the bloody special effects are repetitive, but they work, and that’s what ultimately matters. You have to celebrate any time you see practical special effects in a modern low-budget genre movie.
The moments of gunplay and other action are a bit stiff, but it mostly works because none of the human characters are meant to be “action heroes.” Yes, some of them, like Frank and Ophelia McConnely, are familiar with guns and could be called “gun nuts,” but they aren’t non-stop killing machines. They’re scared people doing the best they can in a dangerous and weird as hell situation. Because, really, how the hell do you fight alien monsters? You do what you can while trying to figure it out on the fly.
Every section of the McConnely house looks amazing. The “regular” house looks like the kind of place a rich person in Las Vegas would live in and hold a big hooha party at. The bunker/underground house is initially fun because it’s so unexpected (do people really build what amounts to a house underneath their regular house? The McConnely clan did), and while well stocked and formidable against a standard human enemy, the underground house gives off a false sense of security when the alien monsters arrive. The underground house isn’t as safe as it maybe should be?
The way the story resolves itself may divide some people. I like the way the movie plays out, but there is a late moment that may be too much for some people. I won’t divulge what happens, but I can totally see people ask if the movie really needs anything more than alien monsters as the story’s villain. What happens makes sense considering the overall villains are alien monsters and anything can happen when dealing with alien monsters (they are alien monsters, after all), it could be overkill for some audience members. Maybe.
I was surprised by how little Sorbo’s President Nolan figures into the story. With how he is introduced and what he finds out from his military officials and cabinet members, the U.S. government has no real plan to deal with this alien invasion. With how shifty some of these cabinet people and military officials look, I really thought there would be a sort of “B plot” involving President Nolan getting to the bottom of what the government, his government, actually knows. That doesn’t happen, though. We see President Nolan in his big meeting, we see him give his presidential address, and then we hear his voice a few times over a radio towards the end of the movie. I suspect that none of that happened because the production only had Sorbo for a limited time and having him do what amounts to an extended cameo was what the production could do and having a “B-plot” would take too much away from the alien monster attack in Las Vegas. Maybe we’ll see more of President Nolan in a potential/eventual Alien Storm 2?
And then there’s the complete omission of what I think absolutely should have happened in this movie. Why are The Godfather and D’Lo Brown in this movie together and they don’t have a scene where they perform a tag team pro wrestling “double team” move on at least one of the alien monsters? If you have pro wrestlers in your indie genre movie, you have to find a way to make that kind of thing happen. It’s incredibly important. It just has to happen. I mean, why else have them in the movie? You can’t just have The Godfather and D’Lo Brown appear in your movie and not have them fight an alien monster in some form. You just can’t.
Robert Standley does a great job as Frank McConnely. Frank is a devoted family man thrust into a seriously weird and deadly situation and he does what he can for everyone in his vicinity, both family and non-family alike. And while Standley doesn’t exactly project a “typical” action hero vibe, he credibly shows that Frank can handle himself quite well in a dangerous situation. The same goes for Laura Mason as Frank’s wife Ophelia McConnely. Decked out in a fancy dress that doesn’t look the least bit comfortable, Ophelia straps on some guns and jumps into action, something you just don’t expect to see happen (you almost expect to see her put some sweatpants and sneakers on before leading a group of people into action against the alien monsters because it just looks impossible to be an action hero of any kind wearing that dress). I think everyone will be surprised by what happens to them.
Molly Jean Edwards does a nice job as Grace McConnely. You root for her when she goes searching for her missing pet with her uncle Cole (Denny Nolan is fun as Uncle Cole until the shit hits the fan), and you end up shocked to your core by what happens to her. Again, you just don’t expect to see happen what you see happen to the McConnely family. William Delesk does a good job with the few scenes that he has as the youngest McConnely kid, Bernie, although I have a feeling we’re going to end up seeing more from Bernie in a potential sequel.
Elley Ringo does okay as Jenna Fishel, the reporter that intends to interview the mayor at the McConnely party. The movie doesn’t really do anything interesting with the big reveal regarding her relationship with the mayor, and you may end up confused as to why it’s in the movie. Truthfully, it’s a character nugget that feels like something that would work better in an old TV miniseries that needed multiple subplots to fill out its three or four night runtime. Fishel does end up having something to do towards the end of the movie, but even that just feels off.
Greg Tally could have had his own movie as Solomon Justice, the pool guy that looks like Guy Fieri’s stunt double. With that name, that look, and an almost larger than life presence and attitude, you expect to see Solomon Justice kicking ass, taking names, and having way more insight into what’s happening than you expect him to. I mean, yes, his specific knowledge does figure into the ending of the movie, but you just expect way more. The same goes for Johnny Huang as DJ Beetz. Beetz is related to the McConnely family in some way, and you think you’re going to see something special from him, but then his character just fizzles out.
And then there’s Tom Arnold and Kevin Sorbo. While it’s true that Arnold’s Mayor Walker has more to do than Sorbo’s President Nolan, they’re both not in the movie long enough. And on top of that, neither one gets a “big moment” in the movie. They’re just sort of in the movie providing their name and stature but that’s about it. And on top of that, Tom Arnold doesn’t have any real funny moments in the movie, something I don’t understand at all. It’s weird. And I’ll say again, if and when there’s a Alien Storm 2, we need to see more from Sorbo’s President Nolan getting to the bottom of what his government really knew about the alien monster invasion before it happened.
I liked Alien Storm quite a bit. Yes, it makes some weird choices with some of its characters and the ending, but it all makes sense in an overall way and that’s what matters most. It also has some terrific alien monsters in it created with practical special effects. You have to embrace that kind of thing every single time you see it in this day and age. You just have to.
See Alien Storm. See it, see it, see it. Alien Storm is currently available to rent via Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: Lots. It has to be close to 30.
Explosions: None.
Nudity?: None.
Doobage: Three production company logos. A U.S. Army Humvee driving through “California.” A weird fog. Attempted drone use. A nasty neck wound. A nasty gut wound. Attempted call for help. An alien monster attack. A party. Lots of pro wrestling talk. Sexual harassment. A white headband. A TV news report about losing communications because of a weird fog. Multiple international TV news reports. Talk of Thailand. An autograph. Swearing in front of kids. A skeptical U.S. president. A U.S. Presidential address to the nation. More weird fog. Sudden paranoia. Massive power failure. An underground bunker. Multiple alien monster attacks. A table hockey table. A bad toupee. Attempted escape. A massive alien monster attack. Neck breaking. Gut ripping. Face attacking. A .357 magnum. A massive abdomen wound. Throat ripping. A mercy shot to the head. Gut slashing. Eerie glowing red eyes in the fog. Throat ripping. Attempted axe attack. Shotgun hooey. Impersonation. Ham radio hooey. Chlorine tablet crushing. Special bullet preparation. Door breaching. A burned up alien monster. Machete attack.
Kim Richards? Big time.
Gratuitous: U.S. Army hooey. Weird fog. A montage of Las Vegas. A pool service van. Valet parking. A guy that sort of looks like Guy Fieri’s stunt double. The Godfather. D’Lo Brown. A mention of The Nation of Domination. Tom Arnold as the mayor of Las Vegas. Stock footage of riots around the world. Kevin Sorbo as the President of the United States. A U.S. Navy advisor that is in clear violation of every appearance standard the U.S. Navy has. An old TV. Multiple old NFL stories. An alien monster eating a human. A discussion about the potential of a Russian invasion. Ham radio hooey.
Best lines: “Can we turn this shit off?” “What a waste of time.” “There’s something there. Where? In the fog.” “Here’s a Benji. Keep it close.” “You know pimpin’ ain’t easy, but never ever ever count the Godfather out!” “Oh, are those mini quiches?” “You told my Vice-President before you told me?” “Why do you call it ‘The Company?’ Why don’t you just call it the CIA?” “Nice threads, man.” “Mr. Mayor, please make the school district a priority.” “Why would the president give a speech about fog?” “Maybe they’ll do us a favor and wipe us all out!” “First of all, I’m the mayor, not your mother. Suck it up!” “This fog is moving awfully fast.” “Thanks for being such a weird doomsday prepper.” “There must be a lot of money in flying cars.” “I think you all know what this is. We do? This is the end times!” “I got it, Frank.” “What does it even matter?” “Really, fucker?” “Hey, I’m talking to you! Do you know how many fucking concussions I’ve had over a career?” “It’s the hope that kills you. What? It’s an old British saying.” “Oh, shit! I hate being right all of the time!” “I’ve always hated you!” “Really? I can use the ham radio?” “What the hell were those things?” “People are dead and we’re debating what killed them?” “We’re safe in here. You sure about that?” “Not bad? This is enough to make The A-Team blush.” “Standard zombie rules apply. Got it.” “You can take that chivalry shit and shove it up your ass!”
