The Dark Lurking (2008)

Now this is my kind of movie! I make no secret of the fact that I love Alienripoffs, there is nothing more cozy than a couple of cheap special effects and a nice, drooling Gigeresque monster. Back in the eightes most of the movies that came out were violent and sleazy but lately most of the movies have been cheap things full of poor cgi. That doesnt exactly have to be bad, some of those movies are entertaing but I prefer those large pieces of semi-immobile rubber of old. Fortunately, Greg Connors from Australia seems to feel the exact same way and has made a movie that kicks the ass of most scifihorrors of the last 10-20 years! Awesome.

Every fan of James Camerons Aliens know that the truly good stuff happens about an hour and a half into the movie, when all hell breaks loose and the marines desperately try to survive in a very deadly environment full of fast, nasty things. The Dark Lurking begins in that exact situation with a bunch of mercenaries trying to reach the exit from an underground installation and from then on it is a nice rollercoasterride full of monsters and gore. Connors and his fellow filmmakers have done their homework well: The corridors are cramped and dark and full of smoke, the blinking lights are everywhere (even in the ventilationshafts!) and the sliding doors make that whooshing noise that they are supposed to do. All the characters are cliches, tough mercenaries, scared scientists but knowingly so. We even have a Sigourney Weaver lookalike, although her part in the proceedings are a bit more cooler. In fact, the reason for this infestation is way cooler than usual and pretty hilarious (in a good way). The monsters themselves are actually more zombielike and somewhat similiar to the meatballheads of Nightmare city, with some exceptions of a couple of very familiar domeheadlike things that pop up from time to time. We even get a whole bunch of pretty nice gorescenes with excellent makeupeffects.

Ok, so I am in love with this movie and it may cloud my judgement, so to insure you that I'm not blind I will agree that the movie has faults. The acting is pretty mediocre, though not poor enough to ruin the movie. The actors are Australian, but most of them tries an american accent which actually makes them sound dubbed (though I suppose they could be just that). Visual effects (mostly scenes from an orbital spacestation) arent exactly topnotch though they serve their purpose. The script and the dialogue are all stuff we've seen and heard before, and the movie doesnt even try to be anything other than that. And I'm perfectly fine with all this. The Dark Lurking is a movie from a bunch of people that has a deep love for Alien and Aliens and they are perfectly aware that the movie they made is a heap of clichés. But they display a true love for the genre and that is more than a whole bunch of similar movies has displayed and more than enough for me.