Extraterrestrial (2014) [Blu-Ray] 
Director: Colin Minihan (of The Vicious Bros.)
Cast: Brittany Allen, Freddie Stroma, Jesse Moss
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
Synopsis:
In Extraterrestrial, April (Brittany Allen, Dead Before Dawn), still reeling from her parents’ divorce, is dragged by her boyfriend (Freddie Stroma, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince, Pitch Perfect), and a group of his friends back to the cabin where she spent summers as a child. Her trip down memory lane takes a dramatic and terrifying turn when a fireball descends from the sky and explodes in the nearby woods. The group venture out to the crash site and discover the remnants of a ship from another planet, along with footprints that suggest its alien occupants are still alive. They soon find themselves caught in the middle of something bigger and more terrifying than anything they could ever imagine.
When a group of friends head out for a relaxing weekend trip to an old summer home, they find themselves in a small, rural town with an interesting collection of individuals, a community only April (Allen) is familiar with having spent most of her summers as a kid there. But when these friends find what appears to be a crashed alien ship and mysterious footprints leading away from the crash site, things begin to take a terrifying turn for the worse. Before long they realize that the town has been invaded by extraterrestrial visitors and they haven’t come in peace. After shooting one of the visitors, the teens and the locals alike become engulfed in an otherworldly mess that will require every bit of fight in them to even stand a chance of escaping with their lives.
The two man filmmaking team of The Vicious Bros (Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz) bring you ‘Extraterrestrial’ (the two wrote the film together, while Colin Minihan directed solo this time around, at least to my knowledge, yet it’s credited overall simply to ‘The Vicious Bros.’) The two do a fantastic job here in every way, delivering a creepy and well done film, right up with their wonderfully eerie and fantastic debut film ‘Grave Encounters’. The cast of ‘Extraterrestrial’ is comprised of a few familiar faces (at least to genre fans) along with a number of less known individuals including Brittany Allen, Freddie Stroma, Gil Bellows, Jesse Moss, Michael Ironside, Emily Perkins and a number more, all of whom deliver pretty solid and capable performances in each of their respective roles.
‘Extraterrestrial’ is a creepy and exceptionally well done alien film. Rather than attempting to take things to some unexplored and unknown new place, The Vicious Bros. have opted to instead follow the more familiar aspects for these types of classic films and instead of trying (and potentially failing) to bring something spectacular and new to the fold, they concentrate on sticking with a familiar formula and doing it right, taking this well known concept to a modern and often quite bloody level while also giving it a terrifying new life. For all of the fans of horror and alien oriented films out there, I would highly recommend checking out ‘Extraterrestrial’, it’s a refreshing update on the alien abduction films we are all familiar with that is treated with care and delivers on nearly every level. It’s definitely not one to be missed, especially by genre fans.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Extraterrestrial’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.35:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic as a whole, delivering a sharp, detailed presentation throughout. The film features a number of incredibly dark sequences, all of which remain more than discernible at all times and look great, utilizing rich, warm colors in a number of moments and shifting back to darkness suddenly and flawlessly without issue. Overall, this is a top notch high definition video presentation with no noticeable faults to be found within and it should not disappoint in the slightest.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release includes a lossless 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack (the rear of the case lists it as 5.1 but it is indeed actually 7.1) that is incredibly active and sounds amazing. This lossless multichannel soundtrack (also one of the first 7.1 soundtracks that I can recall seeing offered on a Shout/Scream Factory release) takes constant advantage of all seven available channels to fully immerse the viewer not only with the wonderful soundtrack/score, but with a regularly frenetic collection of creepy noises, both tame and loud (at times almost cringe-worthy, yet in the best way possible) while additionally managing to keep all dialogue that may be occurring simultaneously from becoming negative affected or distorted in any way. Overall, this is a highly impressive and incredibly active 7.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that contributes a great deal to the overall experience of the film and should easily please the masses.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Extraterrestrial’ includes a couple of nice extras. Included on the release are a number of Deleted Scenes (just over 7 minutes worth in total); ‘The Making of Extraterrestrial’ Featurette (7 minutes) and an Audio Commentary with The Vicious Brothers and Actors Brittany Allen and Melanie Paplia. The Trailer for the movie is also included.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
‘Extraterrestrial’ is now available to own on Blu-ray & DVD from IFC Midnight & Scream Factory
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