Alien Raiders

By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 2/2/2009

RAW FEED/WARNER
Street: Feb. 17
Prebook: now
> Clever low-budget sci-fi/horror hybrid delivers suspense and shocks.

The latest entry in Warner’s “Raw Feed” line of low-budget horror titles, Alien Raiders takes a simple, high-concept idea—aliens invading a supermarket—and serves it up with suspense, shocks and wit to spare. The guts and nastiness are generally kept to a minimum in favor of a clever story that finds a small Western market overrun one evening by extraterrestrial baddies, alien hunters, psychics, cops thieves and shoppers. The question for everyone (including viewers) is just exactly who’s who? Taken as a whole, it’s a nifty little mix of Alien, The Thing and The Mist that takes itself quite seriously (not that there aren’t funny moments), and that’s why it works.

Shelf Talk: There has been growing online buzz about Alien Raiders for the past several months, and the film is in a position to become one of the first quarter’s more popular horror DVD premieres. Word-of-mouth among fans will be essential, but it doesn’t hurt that the film is filled with an adept cast recognizable from TV, including 24’s Carlos Bernard, Criminal Minds’ Courtney Ford and Six Feet Under’s Mathew St. Patrick.

Sci-fi horror, color, R (violence, language, gore), 85 min., DVD $24.98
Extras: featurettes
Director: Ben Rock
First Run: DVD premiere