ALIEN DEAD

On the DVD commentrak to BIOHAZARD, writer and director Steve Latshaw says of his longtime associate, "There's always something a bit odd about a Fred Olen Ray film." He's right. In none of the over six dozen films he's directed has Ray filmed a single scene that bears any resemblance to reality. It's not that often that Ray's work approaches what we recognize as fiction either he's one of those filmmakers that appreciates the oddball attributes that so often find their way into low budget features, and makes sure his camera is pointed toward these elements whenever he can.

Witness a sequence midway into his first released feature, ALIEN DEAD, which is supposed to take place in a general store. The store in the rural Florida locality in which they were filming had suffered a fire, and was doing business from a tent in the parking lot. So Ray filmed all the store scenes in this tent, without any explanation for it. Now, you would think that viewers would be taken aback seeing a store so obviously in a tent, but by then the movie is enveloped in such an atmosphere of unreality that it's taken in stride.

After a few narrated shots of small town newspaperman Tom Corman (Raymond Roberts) typing up his notes (a bit of padding added in to boost the film's running time), the first scene establishes this outré air. A husband and wife team of alligator hunters rows a boat through a Florida swamp at night in a single shot lasting over two minutes. Their post-synced dialogue is some of the most oddly phrased this side of Ed Wood many of the characters in Ray's script sound like Tom Hanks in THE LADYKILLERS, which is either bad writing or authentic Florida, take your pick. When asked if his shot killed a gator, the man replies, "The cold light of science, my pet, assures me there can be no other way."

Since there's not much light of any kind in this scene, for years viewers have been unable to see the lady dragged under the water by who-knows-what. My recollection of seeing the film edited for television in the mid-1980s is just a bunch of talking and walking around in the dark. If it does nothing else, this DVD release throws some light on the subject, allowing many to actually see ALIEN DEAD for the first time. The cinematography is nothing special in fact, it's pretty awful most of the time. When it's not underlit or out of focus, it's poorly framed. When our hero Tom loses his shoes meeting cute with swamp gal Shawn Michaels (Linda Lewis) and her pappy Emmet (George Kelsey), some jokes are made about his socks, but we can't see them because they're out of frame.

Fred Olen Ray was working at his local PBS station in the late 1970s when he and two buddies put up fifteen thousand dollars to shoot a feature film they planned to call IT FELL FROM THE SKY. They ended up having $3000 left over! Ray is clearly feeling his way along every foot of film, learning as he goes. That the monster doesn't appear early on has nothing to do with atmosphere. The original script was a swipe of Bernard Kowalski's ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES - the redneck sheriff played by Buster Crabbe (FLASH GORDON of the serials) is named after Kowalski - but when constructing monster costumes proved too expensive and difficult, Ray took a page from George Romero's book and changed his menace to zombies.

In between goofy conversations about rebuilding the Maguffin Bridge, a giant baby bass, possum recipes, and escaped convicts dressed as nuns, locals find folks in the swamp "deader than Mother's Day at an orphanage". Constructed the same as hundreds of other horror movies, ALIEN DEAD goes about its business of staging zombie attacks on skinny dippers and wayward coots while the heroes piece together clues and try to get the wrongheaded authorities to listen to their theories about the weird menace. Only its eccentric details and frequently awful performances make it entertaining as it shambles toward an awkward conclusion, along with a healthy dose of slasher era violence. Some of the zombie and gore makeups looks pretty good, while others look like just what they are rubber masks. Zombie movies have always actually benefited from low budgets with a rough-hewn look, and this one's no exception. The most effective scenes gain some shock value due to the immediacy of the cheap film stock and natural locations. However, much of this value is undercut by the same conditions it's difficult to take gut-munching zombies seriously when their victim is clearly suppressing giggles.

Ray doesn't suppress any giggles on his commentrak, or anything else for that matter. He's up front about this not being a very good film, and about his own inexperience at the time, but he's also aware that it can be a hoot to watch. Though recovering from a back operation, Fred gamely offers invaluable help to young filmmakers by pointing out exactly what he did right, and more often, what he did wrong.

Actors Mike Bonavia, Dennis Underwood and Shelley Vaughan Youngren, who played supporting roles, were reunited in 1992, and chat together onscreen for six minutes of tape. They don't add much in the way of production details, but it's nice to hear their own view on this old production. And they all agree that, as Bonavia puts it, "It's not a very good film, folks."

Sure, but that shouldn't stop you from showing it at your next party.