Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage (2001)

Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage (2001) * 1/2 (out of 4) Disappointing sequel has the FBI and a small town sheriff investigating some strange activities and before long they realize they're dealing with a deadly alien.Director Don Dohler made THE ALIEN FACTOR in 1978 and somewhat remade it in 1982 as NIGHTBEAST. I found both of those movies to be a lot of fun because the director manages to have a nice throwback to the 1950's drive-in era but he mixed in sex, gore and nudity. Twenty-three years after that original film he returned with this sequel but sadly the charm has pretty much warn off and you're left with a rather boring movie.I must say that on a technical level this here is probably the best film I've seen from the director. The film was obviously shot with a very low-budget but I thought the look was quite professional and there's no question that it was technically well-made for what it was. The problem was the fact that there just wasn't anything fun going on. The two films I previously mentioned at least gave us decent monsters as well as some very good gore scenes but that's not the case here. The monster looks extremely bad and I'd argue that the death scenes were boring and not very creative.The film has the bad performances that you'd expect but these here really weren't a major issue. The budget allowed for some cheap special effects but they certainly weren't interesting enough to draw you into the picture and it's really too bad that they got away from what made the original work so well.

A lethal alien cyborg (Bill Ulrich in a gnarly rubber suit) terrorizes a small town in Maryland. The local police join forces with an FBI agent to stop it.Writer/director Don Dohler keeps the enjoyable story moving long at a snappy pace, maintains an engaging sincere tone throughout, and stages the exciting action with flair. Moreover, Dohler brings a winning sense of positively infectious go-for-it enthusiasm that's impossible to either resist or dislike. Granted, the acting from the uneven cast is decidedly hit or miss, but there are nonetheless admirably game contributions from Donna Sherman as no-nonsense sheriff Allison Smith, George Stover as earnest deputy Mickey Sinclair, Patrick Bussink as secretive fed Frank Love, Jonas Grey as brave munitions expert David Tackett, Anne Frith as old bag lady Aggie, and Shawn Doyle as the concerned Mayor Henry Kidd. The rinky-dink (less than) special effects further add to this film's rough around the edges homemade charm. The robust score hits the rousing spot. A fun little flick.

In my book director Don Dohler will go in the list of history's worst directors. Which includes Burt I. Gordon, Edward Wood Jr. and Jeff Leroy. Don Dohler is that level of bad. Alien Factor was was a steaming pile of bio-waste. Why on God's green Earth did they allow him to make a second movie? It makes me sick. The plot was okay. But again poor production values, creature suit was just okay. The acting was god awful. The fact that the only minority was a minor background character only supports to me that Don Dohler is also a bigot and the Government probably made him have her in the movie. It's crap, the acting is crap, the story is crap, the effects are crap, the creature effects are crap, let's face it. Except for the plot being somewhat interesting it's total crap. I give it... THE NOOSE!

Baltimore's own Don Dohler has been crankin' em out since the late seventies beginning with THE ALIEN FACTOR. In 2001, Dohler finally answered his legion of fans (all 10 of 'em)and filmed ALIEN FACTOR 2:ALIEN RAMPAGE. And while I must admit that Dohler has improved a little in his film-making technique, he is still hampered by micro budgets which especially show during the special-effects scenes.As usual,the acting in this film ranges from decent to strictly amateur. A special nod goes to actress Ann Firths way over the top performance as an elderly bag lady;it borders on caricature.But throw in a neat monster,cheesy special-effects plus a- let's make a movie, gang!-atmosphere and you have a new millennium spin on the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland films of the 1940's where a group of friends put on a show in the barn for the local townsfolk.Amateurish,yes. Good? Not hardly. In fact, I wouldn't want to watch ALIEN FACTOR 2 again anytime soon. But in it's own homemade, shot in the backyard way, it's rather cute and endearing. A cinematic version of The Little Engine That Could.