WITHOUT WARNING (1980)

WITHOUT WARNING (1980)

Tagline: It preys on human fear. It feeds on human flesh.

(Horror, Sci-Fi, Creepy Sucker Things) [R]

You've seen those flying critters. Feisty little things aren't they?

In this one, these flying disc creatures with teeth and tentacles that are about the size of a softball are coming out of nowhere sucking the blood and life out of their victims. Even though this movie is called WITHOUT WARNING, when a group of 20 something’s arrive in a small town near a lake, they pretty much get warnings from everyone they run into. That doesn’t do any good though and a brief swim in the lake and make-out session quickly devolves into a nightmare. Meanwhile, a few of the townspeople have good hunches on where these disc creatures are coming from and quickly and bizarrely react to the new arrivals tales. 

First off, I first saw this thing when I must have been about 7 or 8 years old on HBO. My dad was pretty liberal with his allowing us to watch all kinds of horror stuff. This one, in particular, scared the crap out of me because my dad would literally chase us around the apartment making the same noise the disc creatures did acting like his hand was one of the creatures. I didn’t end up seeing this thing again until just today and it’s still pretty crazy. 

The effects on the disc creatures are pretty intense and terrifying. Oddly enough the alien on the posters and in ads is hardly in the movie at all. This is strange to me given the amount of money they spent on the costume. We get a ton of dark scenes in this movie but the lighting is adequate and overall the score does a pretty great job of amping up the creepy factor. 

Where this movie shines is in the performances. There is an odd hunter in the town named Joe Taylor who is played by Jack Palance whose iconic voice gets your attention. His performance in this is outstanding and ranges in emotion from giddy to biting people’s heads off verbally. Jack was an extremely accomplished actor, but also did several spooky shows and horror flicks. The legendary Martin Landau is also in this. He basically plays a Vet who has basically gone mad with alien conspiracies (a few of which happen to be true in the film). Christopher S. Nelson also does a pretty good job as the male lead Greg. The movie's female lead is played by Tarah Nutter who actually appeared in both Days Of Our Lives and Eight Is Enough, and she crushes it. This was also David Caruso’s first movie. 

Directed by Greydon Clark who also helmed UNINVITED, this movie is surprisingly solid for a movie about flying disc creatures. As much as this movie freaks me out, there isn’t much to complain about here. The idea for the movie was so interesting that PREDATOR basically rehashed it 6 years later with a few added and a few missing elements. One of the elements that remained exactly the same was Peter Kevin Hall in the alien suit. While this thing is definitely 80’s campy, it’s also a really interesting horror flick with fantastic dialog and over-the-top characters. 

I have to give this one a 5 out of 7. There are a few things I would have liked to have seen but didn’t and a few plot points that I found annoying, but outside of that, it’s a great addition to any Halloween Horror-o-thon. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF HERITAGE ENTERPRISES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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