Ataque Alienígena

In a stormy night, while transporting the criminal Jack (Bruce Campbell) to the death corridor, the officers have a car accident nearby a private airport. They bring the prisoner to the place where clients are arguing the owner of the charter services and pilot Cathy Garrett (Chase Masterson) because she refuses to take off with the bad weather and the communications are down due to the snow storm. Jack asks to go to the toilet being escorted by the guards; however, in the bathroom, a preacher attacks and kills the guards and when Jack kills him, his body vanishes. Jack returns to the lobby and when the security guard holds him, he accidentally shots a passenger, but the woman does not die until Jack shots her head and her body also disappears. The survivors conclude that they are trapped in a place with aliens and nobody is trustful.

"Terminal Invasion" has a good concept, where the viewer shall guess who are the aliens among humans, but there are many flaws in the story. But considering the extremely low-budget of this movie, with few locations, special effects and unknown cast (with the exception of Bruce Campbell), the result is an entertaining B-movie. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Ataque Alienígena" ("Alien Attack")

With the "near-great" Brucie, how can ya miss. Ok maybe he doesn't crack wise enough (Big Way my fave from another dud Navy spoof) but the scene near beginning in the men's room -- oh yes. Especially the religious slant. Gotta love it. Had this had an Aliens 2 style budget it would have kicked people better. But for FREE on Sci-Fi channel, what's to barf. Couple nifty twists offer a pleasant little ride. Grade: Gentleman's C. (C for Campbell)

Friday the 13th's Sean S. Cunningham directs The Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell in this entertaining piece of B-movie sci-fi/horror hokum. Although made for TV, 'Terminal Invasion' has its fair share of decent moments and Cunningham, no stranger to the genre, delivers a slick fun-filled film. Only the iffy editing and some dodgy scene transitions belie the movie's TV origins.

In a script that draws comparison with John Carpenter's (far superior) The Thing, a group of people, trapped inside a remote airport terminal during a severe blizzard, discover a malign alien presence intent on enslaving mankind. But with the extra-terrestrial creatures in human guise, paranoia and panic soon sets in.

Bruce Campbell, not the greatest of actors put possessing a strong screen presence, hams it up the only way he can, bringing a welcome familiarity to his role of Jack; this is basically Ash from Army of Darkness, minus his boom-stick! The rest of the cast give credible performances; a commendable feat given the cheesy lines they are forced to deliver.

The special effects are sparse, but effective; once out of their human form, the aliens are a creepy bunch of ugly critters, and there is even a tiny smattering of gore to keep horror fans happy.

Despite 'Terminal Invasion' being a made for TV offering, it is great to see Sean S. Cunningham directing again after a long hiatus-this is, after all, the man who gave us Jason Vorhees-and I look forward to 'Trapped Ashes', a horror anthology which will contain segments from four different directors (Cunningham directs the second segment) plus non-segment portions by Joe Dante. The film has been described as 'extremely twisted'. Sounds promising.

Bruce kinda had a quiet roll (although he did Co-Star in the film) and it wasn't exactly packed with action but it was a decent flick by SciFi Channel standards. Bruce plays the strong silent type in this movie, would have been nice to hear a few more wise cracks out of him. If you like Bruce Campbell its definately worth a watch.

Terminal Invasion has the look of a home video movie, but it just goes to show that even with the most amateurish of film production values, one can still deliver an entertaining feature. It's always a pleasure to see Bruce Campbell, and though he's not all that funny here, I'd say he is one of Terminal Invasions saving graces.

I thing I have a pretty good idea what Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13th) and Lewis Abernathy had in mind when they constructed Terminal Invasion. It has a fairly strong does of The Thing to it. An alien life form has found its way into a small airport (In one of the north western States, it doesn't say). Bruce Campbell is a prisoner, who escapes the custody of his escort there, and holds everyone at gun point. Unfortunately until the storm outside clears, he ain't gonna be able to fly outta this one, and it's a seventeen mile walk to the nearest town. He finds himself stuck with a dozen angry/confused/nervous (but quirky) folk. and some of them as he is about to find out may not be human.

Sean Cunningham is certainly not a name that I'd expect to see in the director's chair of something like this. Perhaps he needed a break from Hollywood and investing is all the crappy sequels to his classic. To say the film is played for laughs may be a slight overstatement. It is not a comedy but it has it's funnier bits. In one sequence the gang, use the luggage x-ray to determine who is alien and who is not. If nothing else I'll probably remember Terminal invasion for two things Bruce Campbell, and that scene.

To tell you the truth, I got a small kick out of the whole thing. It's not much of a movie, but it's good amateurish fun. If you catch it on the sci-fi channel, you may as well watch for a bit.