Alien Raiders

A group of heavily armed and motivated individuals head into a small-town grocery store near closing time. They round of the customers and shoot a few people, but despite what the police outside think, robbery is not their intention. They begin to inspect the customers very carefully, as though they were looking for someone. Or something...

With a title like that, it would be easy to pass this one off as some Sci-Fi Channel (new name be damned!) Original Movie, some thing seen on the shelf of the video store, giggled at, and passed over. I can tell you now that would be a big mistake, as this is a damn fine little movie well worth the time of any sci-fi or horror fan.

For starters, the group of actors assembled for this (all no-names, of course) do a very solid job. Everyone does their part believably and in a way that you care about them. With the format of how the "Aliens" are found, it adds an extra whodunnit style element, as there's the wonder of who's going to be next (it's a bit like The Thing, which is always high praise). A solid script backs them up, along with some fairly competant production values for such a low-budget movie.

Also on the low-budget aspect is the effects. The creature and gore things are usually no on camera, but rather hidden offscreen or just behind a door. This helps raise the tension when things hit the fan, though the on-screen effects (most of them towards the end) are pretty impressive. Goold old fashioned physical make-up and prostetics rule, and they are done quite impressively.

The general style of the movie is a mish-mash of genres, much akin to From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Like that movie, it starts as a crime thriller (men with guns, hostages, police negotiators, etc.), then moves into horror and sci-fi territory. It's a transition that seems a little jarring at first, but it melds well and all comes together for the finale (even if the final "twist" is a tad predictable).

Overall it's an excellent little movie, on that certainly could've made it to theaters for at least a little while. As it stands, it is merely unfortunately named (seriously, they could've done waaaay better than that), but one of the better sci-fi/horror titles of the past few years.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1rRf7PW58