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Intruder Within, The - Trans World Entertainment |
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Written by Jay Creepy
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Thursday, 30 January 2014 |

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AKA: The
Lucifer Rig, El intruso, Le monstre des
profondeurs, Tromos apo ta vathi tou okeanou,
Inkraktaren, Targoor reise ins Grauen.
Directed by: Peter Carter
Written by: Ed Waters
Produced by: Neil T.Maffeo
Cinematography by: James Pergola
Editing by: Richard Rabjohn
Special Effects by: James Cummins, Don Powers,
Henry Golas
Music by: Jerry Cohen
Cast: Chad Everett, Jennifer Warren, Rockne
Tarkington, Michael Hogan, Joseph Bottoms, Mary Ann
Macdonald.
Year: 1981
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Runtime: 1h 31min
Distributor: Trans World Entertainment
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This is a TV movie made a few years before John Carpenter's
remake of "The Thing From Another World" and has set
itself on a remote and claustrophobic oil rig (although city
lights can be seen in some shots). It's an obvious cash-in on "Alien,"
so that should be good then, yeah? The trouble is that this
film has quite a large crew, so apart from the handful of main
characters in the script, "The Intruder Within" has loads
of other people who are just around to sit at a table, or
whatever and not speak. One feels the movie is rather crowded
at times since it's meant to be one creature verses humans.
One day, a young lad, Phil, wakes up screaming after a nightmare
warning him of death. Naturally, his colleagues ignore this
omen and go about their business. Soon the drilling screws up
and men with big moustaches and TV haircuts argue for a while.
Apparently the rig shouldn't even be there, etcetera. However,
company boy Scotty debates how the region is, until then,
untouched and should be rich in oil. There's two women on
board, Robyn (Lynda Mason Green of the "War of the Worlds"
TV series) who is the obvious pretty main character, and Dr
Wilma, unattractive name, unattractive person, she'll die sooner
or later.
More folks arrive via chopper, including Harry, and a tough
man-like blonde woman, Colette. As the crew salvages and
repairs their drill, they bring up various rock samples. All of
a sudden a freaky eel chestburster thing bites into Phil's hand.
The eel is shot and Phil dies. Picking up Phil's helmet, Mark
(Black Samson his very self, Rockne Tarkington) recalls the
dream.
By sheer coincidence they cannot contact anybody off the rig,
it's as if an invisible shield is around the rig and supplies
aren't due for another week. One geeza, Sam, pricks his finger
on one of the rocks. After Phil's sea burial, Sam begins to act
strange, shaking and manic looking. Uh-oh! Turns out the rocks
are eggs and Sam's blood pops one open.
Totally losing it, he runs around the rig at night and has a
climb about, then falls into the ocean. Our main man Jake leaps
in after him, but cannot find him. You damn fool! Mark
scolds Jake afterwards. Well of course he tried, Sam was in
fact Blaster out of "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome," though
you could have fooled me.
Scotty records all his studies on the rocks/eggs, including how
blood contact can cause the victim to commit suicide. He then
decides to preserve the eggs away from the heat and observe the
organisms, you know how this goes.
Paranoia sets in with some members of the crew. Fears of being
cut off from the rest of the world causes tension. This rig
is doomed, it's gonna kill us all! warns Chili. There's
time for some character development between young Harry and
Robyn, then Jake and Colette. It doesn't get very far for Harry
though, since he's suddenly attacked whilst mopping. (I need to
note that the DVD-R we watched was a dreadful transfer so it was
hard to really figure out much of anything on dark scenes.
Looked like a lil' alien creature was sat on his chest before
Jake blasts it with a fire extinguisher.)
The thing's inside me. Harry insists as Wilma treats
him. Scotty suggests that Jake and Colette keep things to
themselves so as not to cause any panic. It seems Scotty has a
theory: whatever life forms wiped out the earliest apes on earth
approximately 14-million-years ago might have vanished in
floods. Perhaps the life forms have been laying dormant under
the sea bed waiting. Jake isn't happy with the fact that Scotty
kept this theory to himself and endangered the crew.
Next, Harry is up and about with wild Paul Nashy eyeballs and
making crazy hand shadows on the walls. He goes to Robyn who
kisses him, and is rewarded by rape. Then he goes after Wilma,
who manages a bit of a fight before being thrown into the icy
waters (like I predicted.) An all out scrap between Jake, Mark
and a ripped t-shirt wearing Harry, who basically kicks their
asses. Of course, towards the end we get to see the creature
itself who goes, Ell... quite a lot. It could be
trying to say, 'ello but can't master our language.
The monster is courtesy of James Cummins who went on to work on
"Deepstar Six," "House," "The Beast Within,"
and "Enemy Mine," among others.
"The Intruder Within" has a truly plodding script. A
direct spawn of "Alien," possibly the first of its kind,
but isn't very memorable. The central problem rests with what I
stated at the beginning, there's just too many faces and
background characters so you don't get that urgent feel of
threat, or time running out on one or two survivors.
Who's going to be next? Who needs to work it out when the movie
telegraphs the answer every time! Let's face it, since most of
the infected hosts commit suicide before hurting anybody, what's
the point?
The man in a rubber suit monster looks like something out of "Xtro,"
but I suppose it's fairly cool and skeletal with loads of teeth.
I don't want to spoil things too much but why does it die so
easily? How does it appear by the way? Well, I was wrong about
Robyn. She does die, giving birth to a man sized monster (where
have I seen that before? Oh yeah, "Xtro" again from
1982. So which movie started production first then? Or is it
just a horror science fiction coincidence?)
Don't you ever make me sit through something like that again.
stated my Horror Soulmate as the credits rolled. That summed up
my feelings too. It's okay for an Alien rip-off, made for TV so
soon after its mother movie stunned audiences worldwide, but due
to so many factors it's now a footnote and a time filler.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 January 2014 )
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