Short Attention Span Review - Xtro (1983)

Xtro is part of the wave of science fiction movies that came out in the late-70s and early-80s. While hampered by a low-budget, production problems, lackluster acting and a story that is at times incoherent, the movie is not without merit.

Synopsis

The film has a strong opening. Rachel (Bernice Stegers), her husband Sam (Philip Sayer) and their son, Tony (Simon Nash) are spending some time at cottage in the English countryside. Rachel heads into town, while Sam and Tony play around in the yard. Although it is the middle of the day, the sky turns pitch black. Sam is drawn into a bright light that descends from the sky. Three years later, Rachel and Tony are living with Rachel's boyfriend Joe (Danny Brainin) and au pair Analise (the fetching, and repeatedly naked, Mariam d'Abo).

The alien ship returns, depositing a rubbery looking monster that impregnates a woman (Susie Silvey). Her abdomen rapidly swells and she gives birth to an adult Sam, in a graphic scene that ends with him biting through his umbilical code. Sam reunites with Rachel and Tony, throwing their domestic world into chaos. In short order he: offers no reason to Rachel for his absence of three years, saying he doesn't remember; freaks out his son by eating his pet snake's eggs; explains to Tony that he's been on an alien world and has been "changed" so he could survive there; and injects Tony with a substance that begins mutating his body so he can return with Sam to his new home.

Tony soon finds that his changing body gives him fantastic powers, including telekinesis and the ability to warp reality, making his fantasies become real. He animates some of his toys, kills off a pesky neighbor, the building superintendent and Analise's boyfriend. He then uses his mouth to inject Analise with a substance that turns her into an egg producing cocoon suspended from the bathroom ceiling. Sam heads back to the cottage he was abducted from and gets Rachel to go to bed with him. This ends poorly, since his human skin is rotting off, revealing the alien within.

Joe and Tony head to the cottage. Joe is killed by Sam. Sam and Tony, who is also shedding his human skin, head into an alien spaceship, leaving mom behind. The film ends with Rachel returning home to find her apartment turned into an incubator for alien eggs...one of which hatches, the creature within attacking her and, presumably, implanting some form of alien life within her. The end.

Analysis

The film's problems are numerous and obvious. It is shot in washed out colors and is set mostly indoors, in cramped homes and apartments, creating a dreary looking movie. The acting is low-key, to the point of being emotionless at times. None of the actors put much effort into their roles, giving performances that are perfunctory at best. Some of the alien make-up effects are rubbery. The internal logic of the film is lacking, with events happening that are never really explained. This is particularly true when it comes to the alien life cycle and powers. For example, Sam is able to melt a phone early in the film and, later, melt a phone line. He isn't shown doing this to anything else. So, are phones allergic to aliens? Why does Rachel's apartment turn bright, glowing white at the end of the movie? Did Tony permanently alter reality with his unexplained powers? While science fiction and horror movies often require some suspension of disbelief, a well-crafted story will have understandable, internally consistent rules. If the established rules change, they have to do so in a reasonable fashion.

Not your usual father-son outing.

Character motivation is also a problem, particularly regarding Rachel. Sam shows up after being gone for three years and claims he has had amnesia...and Rachel accepts the explanation. Her lack of suspicion is comical as Sam's behavior becomes increasingly suspicious. There is also a question about Sam's mission. Is it just to retrieve Tony? Is it to lay eggs on Earth? Why doesn't Sam infect Rachel with whatever he used to alter Tony? He said he wanted to reunite with his family; but in the end, he is only interested in Tony.

Even with these flaws, there are some interesting things happening in this movie, particular in terms of themes. If you look at the story as a child's view of divorce and adult relations it becomes a much more interesting film. Seen through Tony's point-of-view, some of the faults become, if not virtues, at least understandable.

One of the aliens from Xtro.

Tony's father "abandons" him, something he has not gotten over; the opening abduction is presented as a reoccurring nightmare. The detached acting, punctuated by bursts of graphic violence, creates an image of adults, as remote, mysterious, powerful creatures. The photography - the muddy colors and the tight spaces - lend the film a very oppressive atmosphere, as if Tony's world has become cramped and colorless with the absence of his father. Even the rubbery special effects create a sense of magical reality. This whole movie could well be the wish fulfillment of a lonely little boy. When dad comes home, mom's new boyfriend is killed, the young man on the cusp of puberty gets to have his way with the hot, young au pair and, in the end, he gets to go with dad, now with the powers of an adult (alien). Mom is left behind to be orally assaulted by an alien, while hearing her son's voice, a clearly Oedipal image.

Verdict

Is Xtro worth watching? Definitely. In spite of its failings, it does have some arresting imagery and, if looked at as a metaphor for divorce and modern relations as seen by a child, a thematic depth that rewards a viewer willing to perform a little creative analysis.