BIOHAZARD (1985)

BIOHAZARD (1985)

Tagline: Science Gone Very, Very Bad

(Horror, Sci-Fi, It Came From Another Dimension) [R]

No…this can’t be real

In this one, an alien is brought to earth via a dimensional portal. Only a psychic named Lisa that was at the lab seemed to know what its feeling and be able to sense its presence. Lisa and a man named Mitchell have taken on the task of trying to hunt down the alien, but time is running out as it’s leaving a string of grisly murders in its path. 

First off, if the alien in this movie looks like a kid in a Goodwill Halloween suit, that’s because it basically is. The director’s son Christopher Ray, was 7 years old when he took on the role of the alien. He ended up acting in 10 movies but is probably most famous for appearing in Roger Corman’s CAMEL SPIDERS. Granted the ’80s are loaded with goofy-looking aliens, but this one takes the cake in the “oh, that’s a kid in a Halloween costume” department. 

Outside of the actual main alien, the effects in this movie are not bad at all. You can tell they are low-budget, but everything is pretty effective overall. Due to a terrible script, we get very little description of what is going on with this alien till the very final scene and even that is a bit weird. It’s almost like they got to a certain point and they had no idea what to do after that, so they just cut the final scene, and bam…there’s your flick. To make things even odder and almost turn this thing into a comedy is that they play a really goofy “Rockabilly” song at the end of the movie with some bloopers. This final segment while the credits are rolling at least lets you know that they were aware that they were giving us something even they weren’t taking completely seriously. 

The pace of this thing is pretty good even with the bad script and there is enough going on throughout that it keeps your interest. Acting wise I can’t really say anyone was even “good” in this movie, but it does feature the late Angelique Pettyjohn (Star Trek) who plays Lisa. She carries the film along with William Fair who plays Mitchell. Fair is best known for DEEP IMPACT. Director Fred Olen Ray is actually still making movies in 2022. Of course, they are crazy flicks with names like PIRANHA WOMEN and SUPER SHARK. 

There are a few good things about this movie. We do get to see the alien up close. It’s not like this thing is hiding in the dark the entire time like in FORBIDDEN WORLD. Even though the alien looks pretty dime-store at least they weren’t afraid to show it. The other thing I liked was the cast in spite of the bad acting. Sometimes you can just like certain talents and it doesn’t matter if they suck in that role or not. 

Having said that, there is a LOT of bad to sort through with this thing and if you are not in the mood for goofy sci-fi with a few edgy effects every so often, then this won’t be for you. I would also have to say that to enjoy this to do probably also have to be a fan of “specifically 80s sci-fi cheese”. Just being a fan of sci-fi won’t cut it. 

Overall this is a 4 out of 7. I actually liked the alien and the ending credits really made this more fun than it should have been even though the ending was pretty much completely phoned in.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF VIKING FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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