Alien hunter (2003)

Worst. Title. Ever.

I assume it was chosen for a purely commercial reason, but this doesnt do the movie any favours. It makes a fairly serious scifimovie sound like Alienclone of the week, which is too bad since this is a well made, fairly serious scifimovie. Especially since we count in the fact that it was made by then infamous Nu Image who had produced a schlocky movie or two by the time this was released. James Spader plays a former SETI-employee who nowadays works at a California university when he is called to the Antarctica for a mysterious reason. It seems they found an alien object frozen in the ice and since he is an expert in cryptology he is wanted on the scene to interpret any alien languages. The object is thawed but releases some sort of disease that kills about half of the crew instantly. The survivors realize that they are immune but still carriers and the army isnt too pleased with this. Then there is the fact that the alien in the object is still alive...

No, this isnt an alienclone at all and I imagine a lot of people have been turned of by the fact that they either thought it was one, or saw the movie in hopes of it being one. Alien hunter is instead a somewhat serious movie about the first encounter with alien life and the fact that it isnt really compatible with our earth. The budget seems to have been decent, even though there are a couple of scenes of stockfootage and the cg is barely average but the setdesigns of the arctic base are excellent and there are some really fun flesheating sfx where the victims are reduced to a gory goop. Which is always fun. James Spader and John Lynch lends the production a bit of class and the movie is well shot and paced, which means that Alien hunter is much better than expected. Unexpected bonus: Footage from the original The Thing from another world, the exact same footage that appeared in John Carpenters remake as footage of the dead norwegians. All in all, a movie better than expected and a fun watch.