Parasite (1982)

Pretty Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

PARASITE is a cheesy low budget B-movie filmed in a couple of desert buildings that feels very much like an inferior rip-off of ALIEN with a creature that resembles a mix between a facehugger and a chestburster. It was directed by Charles Band, that purveyor of cinematic trash, and was part of the short-lived 3D craze of the early 1980s. I watched it in 2D but the 3D didn't seem so special to me. The film features early special effects by Stan Winston, just two years before THE TERMINATOR, but they're not so special either. Demi Moore appears in a pre-stardom role, but Robert Glaudini gives the best performance as the dedicated scientist who don't let a nasty case of infestation stop him carrying out his research. Being a Charles Band film, he manages to fit laser effects in there somewhere. As a whole this really doesn't hang together too well and that's a pity because I'm a huge fan of the sci-fi/horror genre.

Charles Band has made a lot of good movies in his time, but a lot of his movies are bad too. However, if you watch his movies older than 1999, their usually good. This is one of his movies before 1999, and I have to say, it had a brilliant hook at the start of the movie. However, after that it did introduce us that the movie was set in the future, however it kinda dragged a little on about the gangsters and other surroundings in the future. Myself, I think they could be able to shorten that bit five minutes shorter, but then again, slow movies do seem to express how the character's personalities well, and I'm usually quite forgiving. After some 30 minutes of dragging on, they finally get back to the story. Yay, finally. And ever since that, the movie actually started to become really good. So, it is recommended you go see this movie, even if it is a little slow in parts. I rate it 7.4/10.

A very cheesy early 80's horror movie, and in 3D no less. I've never seen the 3D version of the film but I honestly don't think it would make watching this any better. The main problem with the movie is that it is quite boring. Demi Moore does a good job here, but she is one of the only actors that is halfway decent. Of course nobody watches these kinds of movies to see good acting anyway, so what about the title creatures? They aren't that good either unfortunately. Stan Winston did the effects for this movie and apart from one or two scenes (especially the saloon owner's demise) it doesn't look like he tried very hard on this one, although the lack of funding probably didn't help either. Overall, I would not suggest this movie to anyone unless they really love cheesy Roger Corman flicks. Really, really cheesy Roger Corman flicks.

"Parasite" is a far less interesting film that it should've been.**SPOILERS**In a future wasteland, Dr. Paul Dean, (Robert Glaudini) roams the California desert seeking a temporary lab for his experiments, and comes upon local barkeep Collins, (Al Fann) and his waitress Patricia Wells, (Demi Moore) in their run-down town. A roaming gang, led by Ricus (Luca Bercovici) and other members Zeke, (Tom Villard) Chris, (Scott Thomson) Dana, (Cherie Currie) Buddy, (James Cavan) Bo, (Joannelle Nadine Romero) and Arn, (Freddie Moore) doesn't approve of his friendship with them and steal the main subject of his experiments, a container with a vicious parasitic organism inside. A corporate agent, The Merchant, (James Davidson) seek Dean out to return it to his lab, and when the parasite escapes and begins to chew through the gang, they race to stop it while trying to avoid being killed by the agent.The Good News: This one is a really underwhelming film, and has only a couple things to like about it. The effects here are among it's best features, which the highlight is an incredibly messy and grotesque face exploding sequence when the parasite goes burrowing into the face, as the amount of blood shorn and the impressiveness of what it's showing make for some really good moments. There's also an effective, finger flexing hand cut off with a laser that keeps flopping around, and there's some other notable kills as well. There's a really great pole through the body, a couple chomped bodies, a chewed through throat and some victim set on fire. The parasite itself is suitably nasty and messy, especially as it drips sticky goo fang-filled mouth. The ending, which features a lot of action and some really great set-pieces, is the film's greatest part, really ending the film in a high-note. Beyond these features, however, there isn't much of anything else worthwhile for the film.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot to like, and this wasn't all that terrific. The film's biggest problem is that it's just far too slow. The main town used for most of the film isn't arrived at until the twenty minute mark, leaving tons of time for the introduction of everything else to come slowly afterward, and the set-ups for the gang take too long as well. We're slowly introduced to them one at a time, and this takes a while since the gang is pretty big, and it just chews up time to have to get to know such a big group as slowly as it does here. The absolute lack of anything resembling action is another big hindrance, since the parasite is loosened pretty early on but only slowly goes through the group and most of the time is spent with the two groups mostly yelling at each other or wandering around the town trying to avoid the creature or the agent. It gets old after a while and you just wish for the creature to come faster and attack the characters more often. The pace only kicks up near the end, leaving plenty of time to wander if something will happen. The other thing that really doesn't work is the 3-D effects. Naturally, since most of the time there's no action on-screen, the effects have to handle the majority of the rest of the screen-time and utterly fail. There's a lot of really weak ones in here, mostly just the obvious ones that don't have any reason to be plunged at the audience, such as steel pipes after being impaled through a victim, teeth from the creature during an attack, and other such items. They're all pretty gratuitous, and don't really do anything other than just be there because of the gimmick. There's other problems with this one, but they're not as bad as these ones are and can be avoided or ignored.The Final Verdict: With only a few mildly interesting parts about it, this really wasn't as good as it really could've been, and it's really only got a few appealing values. It falls right in line with the cheesy features at the time, so it you're a fan, then give it a shot, but otherwise steer clear as there's far better ones out there of that time.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, some Language and a mild sex scene