Movie Review: Extraterrestrial Visitors, aka Pod People

So, it seems that the ratio of watchable to awful films in this box set is 1 to 5. That means that after the watchable and modestly enjoyable Slipstream we were due to dive back into boredom. 1983's Extraterrestrial Visitors did not disappoint on the bad movie front. While not the worst I have experienced in this set, it is nowhere near good and nothing I would recommend you go out of your way for.



The movie is also known by an alternative title, The Pod People (despite there being no pods in the movie). There was actually a rumor that was going around that this was shopped to Spielberg as a proposed sequel to ET. There is no truth to that, even if there was, there is no way Spielberg, or any big Hollywood name, would have touched this. It is interesting to note that originally, this was intended to be about a purely malevolent alien, it was changed at the producers' direction to make it more family friendly because of the success of ET. You can even tie this to another movie in this set, Night Fright, which was retitled in the UK as ETN: Extra Terrestrial Nastie, complete with an ET knockoff poster.

As the movie opens we are introduced to some goofy hunter types out in the woods. They stumble across a crashed alien ship with some eggs spilled around. One of the guys proceeds to break all the eggs with a stick. Of course, this does not sit well with the mama alien and that dude is not long for the world.

Meanwhile, there is a family gathering at a cabin. The young son, Tommy, happens to come across an alien in the woods, makes friends and names him Trumpy. He brigs the guy home to his room in the cabin where they make nice and Trumpy shows off some of his tricks, like making Tommy's toys fly around the room. Meanwhile, people are being picked off in the woods, one by one. The family gets all fidgety about getting away.

Trumpy is discovered, but Tommy protects him and says there is another alien doing the killing. Blah, blah, blah. It goes by the numbers and could help you get to sleep if you were having any trouble with that.

The movie was directed by Juan Piquer Simon and it is clearly not his best work. Granted, he is not exactly a first rate director, spending his career in lower budget exploitation/horror fare. With that said, while Extraterrestrial Visitors is not a good movie, his movie just prior to this is the absolutely batshit insane Pieces. Now there is a movie to see, relish, and love. It is complete, per the top nonsense, possibly brilliant. You could also go the other way to his 1989 feature, Slugs. Either way would be better than right here.

Not Recommended.