They Are Among Us (2004)

They Are Among Us is set in the small American town of Point Ridge where your average American teenager Daniel (Michael DiLallo) lives at home with his mum Collette (Anne Apra) & dad Hugh (Bruce Boxleitner) & generally does what the teenage youth of America do. However Daniel's 18th birthday is fast approaching & his parents are acting strangely, they have always guarded a box & Daniel is interested what's inside so along with his mates Harlan (Michael maples) & Devon (Lacey Beeman) he steals the box & has a look inside where he finds some strange feeling paper with some unknown symbols on it. Daniel's parents continue to act odd & he is convinced something is going on, the three friends then meet a woman named Finley (Alison Eastwood) who claims that their town is in fact a colony of aliens who use the skills of crooked plastic surgeon Norbert (Corbin Bernsen) to help them retain a human appearance & that Daniel's mum is in fact one of these aliens. As you would expect the news that his mum is an alien comes as somewhat of a shock but after seeing proof he sets about putting an end to the aliens before they contaminate the whole Earth...Co-produced & directed by Jeffrey Obrow I thought They Are Among Us was average at best. The script by Lars Hauglie takes itself extremely seriously & is badly structured. For the first 45 minutes They Are Among Us tries to be a mystery & build up to the shocking revelation that aliens are among us, unfortunately the narrative is poor & unlike any good mystery there is nothing within that opening 45 minutes to hold your interest to hook you or engage. Sure there's a couple of brief scenes with an alien in them but apart from that I found it both dull & forgettable. While watching They Are Among Us I was thinking that it could be some nightmarish mutant offspring of a cheap rejected episode of The X-Files (1993 - 2002), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either the 1956 one or the 1978 remake) & Dawson's Creek (1998 - 2003). The character's are poor, the dialogue is poor & there's not one single surprise within the entire film while the ending leaves everything wide open & doesn't really resolve anything. Having said that it's reasonably well paced & might pass 100 odd minutes painlessly enough if your not too demanding. Oh, & one more thing for those that have seen it you'll know what I'm talking about but what the hell happened to the missing friend Langford (Garikayi Mutambirwa)? One minute he seemed vital to the plot & the next poof he's never seen, heard or mentioned again!Director Obrow films like an episode from a TV show which comes as no surprise since it was made-for-TV. The whole thing looks flat, unadventurous & utterly forgettable. The special effects are few & far between, there's basically a couple of aliens & it's just some guy with sharp teeth & funny coloured skin while at the end for some reason that is never really explained there's big alien that appears from nowhere & then just disappears into thin air. Forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any. There's no tension or atmosphere & there's definitely no scares while the main villain is some old geezer with bad hair.Technically They Are Among Us is reasonable, it's quite well made but it's all rather average. The acting wasn't great & I'm sure some of the cast were chosen for their looks rather than their acting skill of which they have little.They Are Among Us is nothing special, it didn't do much for me although at least I watched it to the end with having to use the fast forward button on my remote. Not recommended.

I am only writing this out of utter shock that I rented this for almost 4 pounds. Because the story is supposedly similar in nature as 'the body snatchers' you might be tempted to give this a try, however: Its barely watchable. Most annoying of all is that the script is all over the place: you'll wonder why they are running back and forth. After a while you stop caring as the characters are so badly constructed, you hardly feel for them as they pointlessly run all over the place. Ending is sudden and leaves you none the wiser as to the supposed background story. As in any B-movie, bad casting as some characters have been blatantly chosen for their looks instead of their acting ability.

Just finished watching its on the Sci-Fi Channel, and its much better than I expected from a TV movie. It was especially good to see Bruce Boxleitner and Nana Visitor working together as they are from my two favorite shows of all times, Babylon 5 and Star Trek:DS9 respectively. Allison Eastwood brings one word to mind, HOT! She can hold me at gunpoint anytime. I don't know who he is but that guy who played Uncle Bob really creeped me out, He kind of reminds me of this weirdo who walks around my campus handing out bibles. I also liked the "Guardian" alien, whoever did the special effects did a great job on that thing. Now I don't know his name but the actor who played the mechanic gave a decent performance as well. Overall I highly recommend it, it has an Invasion of the body snatchers, meets they live feel to it.

I am very tolerant of really bad sci/fi and horror movies - I've been watching them since I was 4 or 5, so I've seen some really bad stuff, but I deal with it. I've even watched a lot of SciFi Channel movies so I know not to expect much - a usually promising movie that has no ending to speak of. Hope springs eternal, I guess - or the triumph of hope over experience, as they say. Unfortunately, this is a dog right from the beginning and I knew it, but like a moth to the flame, I kept thinking something, anything, interesting would happen. It doesn't. All of the actors give a decent performance - given the script, I don't know how they all kept straight faces. It has something to do with collagen-starved worm parasite creatures who are slowly taking over the human race, one body at a time. There's an evil plastic surgeon who collaborates with the enemy by giving them the outward appearance of humans...don't worry, he gets what's coming to him. The slug people themselves don't really know where they came from, they think they might have thumbed a ride on a meteor that landed on earth, but...somehow they know about the members of slug royalty among them - the slug princess has managed to breed with a human being who knows that she's the worm queen and loves her for her self...oh, must I go on? Please, I implore you, do not waste 2 hours of your life watching this...anything would be better...think of the worst, least enjoyable way you can spend two hours...it would be better than this.