The Alien Factor (1978)

Objectively speaking, the feature directing debut for Maryland-based regional filmmaker Don Dohler may be very crude and indicative of a very low budget at every turn. But while a movie like this may lack the spit and polish of typical Hollywood product, it has something that a lot of those big productions don't have: heart. "The Alien Factor" has the irresistible appeal of movies made by friends who just wanted to get together and have a good time. The design of the monsters shows some imagination, and overall this qualifies as cheese of the very best kind.A spaceship containing three dangerous alien creatures crashes to Earth. The creatures escape, and begin to slaughter various unlucky locals. The intrepid lawman on the case is Sheriff Cinder (Tom Griffith, who sports a great hairdo and mustache), who has the help of people like his deputy Pete (Richard Geiwitz) and Dr. Ruth Sherman (Anne Frith) and her nephew Steven (George Stover). Then along comes a mystery man, Ben Zachary (Don Leifert), and he seems to know more than he's letting on.This endearing bit of schlock often falls back on director Dohlers' dialogue, but when the monsters show up and are doing their thing, the movie is a great deal of fun. The tall monster, the "Zagatile" (performed by John Cosentino) is particularly delicious - wait until you get a load of the legs on this thing. The final monster, the stop motion created Leemoid, shows the most invention. The final quarter of "The Alien Factor" is definitely its best one.While there may be no Oscar contenders here among the cast, they create likable enough characters. Richard Dyszel amuses as a stereotypically sleazy mayor, and Mary Mertens is good as pushy reporter Edie Martin. That's Dohler himself playing Ernie, and his kids Greg and Kim can also be seen on screen.Kenneth Walker does the music score, which is sometimes positively goofy. Ernest D. Farino, who went on to have a substantial career in Hollywood, designed and animated the Leemoid and also devised the opening credits sequence.Most agreeable, for any lover of regional B cinema.Seven out of 10.

An obvious low budget film from 1978, this film features aliens invading a small town. It has a somewhat good plot, but like so many films of this type, they have a somewhat good idea and they fail to develop it enough. Like they started shooting using the basics and not really writing a script. This is why you have so many scenes that take to long to develop such as a man at a bar where we watch him drink while the band plays then follow him to his home. This scene took forever! Then you notice the running time of this film is only 80 minutes and you realize that this is much needed padding. Why they cannot simply add on some more kills is beyond me as there are three aliens killing people, but one of them is a virtual no show until the end.The story has a town being terrorized by three aliens that apparently escaped the wreckage of a crashed spaceship. There is another alien in the area, but it does not seem as hostile. The sheriff is at a complete loss while the mayor wants to keep everything hush hush thanks to an amusement park that will bring money to the small town. However, this film does things differently as it is the mayor that is first convinced of an alien invasion while the sheriff is the skeptical one. A mysterious man also shows up and wishes to help the town dispose of the threat.The killings feature a bit of blood, but nothing all that gory. There is also no nudity in this one. Both could have helped this film go from a rather padded and bloated film with to much filler to a cult classic b rate movie. There are good scenes here and there, but just way to much nothing going on. Seriously, the bar scene went on for a while, I kept expecting something to happen, but all that happened was the man drank two or three beers while a bland band played a song. Then we watch him go home, go upstairs and watch him read. He hears something, goes downstairs and finally we have an attack! To much filler in this one dooms it to being a bit slow and plodding.The aliens look okay for the time, the one that you are not sure of its intentions looks the best (well you will figure that alien out and his role in the movie easily enough, just do not want to spoil anything). There is also an insect type alien that looks pretty good, a strange bear like one that looks kind of funny cause they gave it really long legs. Looks like the person in the costume is wearing platform shoes. Then there is the monster that at first seems invisible, but is finally revealed in the tepid final battle. It looks like a stop motion creature, and not bad for the time I guess.Another film that had a decent enough setup, but just did not do enough to make a good movie. If they had spent some time developing this rather than rushing it to the theater, this one could have been a nice horror film. Instead, we get a film that has some good scenes here and there and just too much clutter. And on a final note, nice shot sheriff! Seriously, why did she have to get so hysterical...she was already warned what she would see would be unpleasant.

Three alien creatures are accidentally set free when the space ship carrying them crash lands in the woods of a Maryland town killing locals in the area. A mysterious scientist(Don Leifert, the demon possessed corpse in Dohler's Fiend) seems to know how to stop them since the bullets fired from police weaponry has little effect. I'll be honest, I found this a laborious trial to sit through. In terms of quality, it has awkward pacing, editing, camera work, musical arrangement, and acting, all of a "lo-fi" variety. For fans of bad cinema, and director Don Dohler, The Alien Factor might be worthwhile, particularly the alien monster costumes and the final effects sequence where animated cells were used to show a creature up against Leifert. The very definition of scraping every dollar to make an independent movie. Tom Griffith, as Sheriff Cinder, never looks comfortable in his role, awfully stiff(..as was most of the cast). Richard Dyszel is the town's concerned mayor, hoping the murders cease and soon. The goofy reason for how the creatures wound up on Earth(..the specimens were being transported to an alien zoo on another planet!)might provide some much needed chuckles. Some sci-fi fans might find this tolerable.

This is a movie I caught on WBIR's late night horror show 'The Unknown Zone'. They showed movies at 11:30 on Friday nights in Tennessee. I've only seen this once and enjoyed it for what it was: a very cheesy movie! Haven't seen it since.Some of these reviews are rather odd. It's almost as though a pitchman is working hard to sell a DVD of this movie. I don't know if that's the case but some of the stranger reviews are from guys who posted once on this entire website and that was it. I remember the stop motion monster and I always thought he was suppose to have been transparent since he was invisible. But it could have been a goof. I can't really rate this film since I haven't seen it in twenty years.