io9: grossout

XTRO Explores the Joys of an Alien Pregnancy

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:03:52 PST

Early 1980s Alien ripoff flick XTRO is about as incoherent as you can get and still be classified as scifi rather than whatever genre the Cremaster movies are in. Still it offers us a few joys, such as this utterly demented scene of an alien impregnating a human female. I love when the, uh, organ comes out of his alien fly (?) or orifice. Reminds me of the brilliant Canadian movie Decoys 2, where the ladies impregnate men with the old tentacle-in-mouth trick (clearly spearheaded by XTRO). There's also an "after" scene below.

Here our poor disposable lady gives birth to a full-grown Adrian Brody-looking dude. Gross! What is it with gigantic birth scenes in scifi? There's one in Slither, too.

The Strange And Perhaps Unintentional Art of Phantasm

Annalee Newitz — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:04:12 PDT

Phantasm is a classic horror/scifi B-movie from the late 1970s whose surreal grossout scenes influenced a whole generation of moviemakers. In this clip, you can see why Phantasm is much more than just a standard schlocker, and it all has to do with visuals. We begin with possibly the most famous scene in the film, where director Don Coscarelli recreated a nightmare he'd had with about an alien death sphere which drills into your head. Fluids fly everywhere, and note that the death ends with a sickly puddle of urine spreading out from the dead body. This is followed by our young protagonist's first face-to-face meeting with the scary Tall Man, an alien masquerading as an undertaker. Note how long and creepily beautiful the shot is, with the eerie mausoleum framing the two characters as they advance towards each other in strange symmetry. You'd never have such a long, mood-building scene in a horror/scifi actioner today. This clip also shows Phantasm obeying the cardinal rule of B-movies, which is that you either have twenty insanely freakish, high-speed things happening on screen at once, or you have nothing going on at all. The staccato structure of the B-movie is what makes it both bad and sublime. Here, at least, the stillness after the freakshow is packed with dreamy details that reward the eye.

Must See: Bad Taste

Annalee Newitz — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:56:05 PDT

Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: Bad Taste
Date: 1987

Vitals: Before he was Mr. Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson was a scrappy New Zealand geek with a penchant for silly B-movies full of gore and weirdness. Bad Taste is his alien invasion movie from that era. A bunch of aliens land in a backwater New Zealand town and turn its inhabitants into the main tasty treat sold at their intergalactic fast food chain. To prevent humans from becoming outer-space crispy nuggets, a group of bumbling Space Defense Agents fight the aliens in a goofy grossout showdown.

Famous names: Peter Jackson

Crunchy goodness: 3

Sight you'll never unsee: Working undercover among the invaders, the agents must participate in an alien-bonding ritual that involves drinking extraterrestrial vomit. You will laugh, you will barf.

Copycat: Jackson returned to the theme of freakish eating habits in his classic zombie flick Dead Alive, where the main character's undead mother calmly eats her own ear after it falls into a dish of custard.

Bang for your buck: There's no doubt that Jackson knows what to do with a special effects budget - though the money he raised for Bad Taste was a tiny fraction of what he had for Lord of the Rings, the blood-spattering fights and alien creatures in this flick are as over-the-top creative as it gets.

Cold Fusion Video Review