Extraterrestrial Visitors (1983)

The Worst Film Ever

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

First off, the title is rather misleading. There are no pods in this movie. There are plenty of people though. There's Tommy, a little boy who lives with his mom and his perpetually cranky uncle in a house in the woods. And there are poachers who get stranded in the woods when their driver bails on them. Plus there's a teenage rock band that goes camping in these same woods, and also becomes stranded when an unseen landslide blocks the road. We first meet them as they're recording their latest track, 'Hear the Engines Roll Now', sung so badly that it sounds like 'Idiot Control Now.' Even the lead singer, when asked what he thought of their session replied "It stinks." He could have been talking about the whole movie.None of the people I've just mentioned are given much in the way of personality, brains, or motivation, and as a result I was unable to care about any of them. But at least they're better than the monster, which looks like someone crossed Greedo and Alf, and added an elephant's trunk. Actually, there are two monsters. One hatches from an egg that Tommy finds in the forest, and is named Trumpy, probably a reference to his enormous schnoz. It turns out that Trumpy can "do magic things" which he shares with Tommy in scenes that are clearly meant to rip-off E.T.Meanwhile, in the forests outside, Trumpy's mom is searching for him, and killing everyone she meets. She/it racks up quite a body count before the movie is over. The monster's attacks here are among the least exciting I've ever seen, but I do wish the pace of the killings had been sped up, because then there would be no more characters and the movie could be over sooner. And speaking of ending sooner, it takes a full half-hour before we even see Trumpy. Until then the movie keeps jumping back and forth between the teens, the poachers, and Tommy until we're not sure that we're still in the same movie.This is partly to blame on the slipshod editing, which jumps between settings with no transitions or reason for doing so. It's like the movie doesn't have the attention span to stay with any one group for more than a few moments. And the technical and stylistic issues don't end there. The photography is rather grainy and the colors largely muted, and most outdoor scenes are obscured by thick clouds of fog. I don't know if I've ever seen so much fog in my life, at least not on land. And there's an annoying new-age soundtrack. Most puzzling is the credits. Both the opening and closing credits are accompanied by incredibly out-of-focus footage from an entirely different monster movie. What the hell? Overall, Pod People reeks of cheapness, with no sign of talent by anyone involved on the project. It tries to be both a chilling horror film and a heart-warming children's tale, and it fails miserably on both counts.

Pod Peopl, a.k.a extraterrestrial visitors, gives a new approach to sci-fi movies, and sets the stage for movies like E.T. In this movie, we have a young boy, who finds an alien egg. When a creature hatches from the egg, the friendship between the two grow. We come to enjoy Trumpey, the alien who the boy befriends, as he is a kind and curious character, and fun to watch. But at the same time, another alien identical to Trumpey is terrorizing the family, and a group of campers, killing them off one by one. The boy refuses to accept that his new friend is the monster responsible. So he and Trumpey run off, before Trumpey can be killed. When the boy is attacked by the other alien, Trumpey comes to his rescue, and convinces his fellow monster to let the boy try to help him. But when the boys uncle attacks them both, the other alien kills him, only to be shot and killed himself. It is then that the boy realizes that there is nothing he can do to protect Trumpey, so he sends him off into the woods. The ending is very touching, because we get to hear the sadness in the boys voice because he has to say goodbye to his new friend. We also know exactly what Trumpey is thinking, even without dialog. The movie provides a new approach to alien films, and i'm forced to think of E.T. while I watch it, because of their similarities. Overall it's a good movie, but not amazing.

One thing I noticed about this cheese wedge was that it tried to look like it was taking place in North America even though it was made in Spain: 1- A portrait of George Washington hangs on the wall in the main setting. 2- A picture of Ronald Reagan hangs on the wall in the cabin where the hunter got killed. 3- A 'Sprite'sticker is stuck on the wall of the main setting. 4- One of the soon-to-be-victims comments that if the TV weren't out, at least they'd be able to watch 'Dallas' 5-There's one or two American flags hanging around. 6- The whole thing is basically a ripoff of E.T., an American film. There may be more,I'm not sure.I guess they wanted to make it look more American to attract a bigger audience. I don't think it happened. Thank goodness I watched this with MST3K.I don't think I would've made it without them. I'm sure I'd hate it without them.

*Spoiler/plot- - 1983, Pod People, A self-absorbed pet-loving only child finds a alien's egg nest hidden in the forest and adopts a embryo. The embryo hatches. All the while vacationing swingers get caught in the drama all around them occurring in the same forest vacation location where the boy lives. Some 'slap and tickle' sexual matters occur. Some forest poachers try to capture the alien at their own peril. One by one they are murdered by an alien looking for those humans who disturbed her nest. *Special Stars- Hugo Atral, William Anton, Ocsar Martin, Frank Branana.*Theme- With motherly love, anything can happen in the smoky mountains. *Based on- Folklore*Trivia/location/goofs- Spanish. Maybe better called "Tales of Trumphy", Film was made by French?Spanish production company. The overuse of smoke or 'diffusion' machines in all the forest scenes is spotty at best. It's diffusion overuse ruins this story. The weird alien menace was changed to a lovable alien to try and cash in on the 'E.T.' craze. Was this film is the basis for the Ridley Scott 'Alien' genre films? Not 'E.T.'*Emotion- This is an enjoyable stinker of a film featuring 'Trumphy'. Not only does this film have space aliens, but it is made in a foreign country and dubbed. Those many combinations gives you hours of corny fun.