Alien Raiders (2008)

I'd say this low-budget sci-fi/horror flick was surprisingly good, but the truth is I chose it among a list of other low-budget Christmas movies because it had an unusually good reputation. Despite having the hallmarks of a small production - contained setting, small cast, mostly shot in the dark - this one manages to deliver a solid survivalist horror movie. The caveat to that is Alien Raiders doesn't deliver anything on top of this: the movie is a good entry in the genre, but it's not subverting, advancing, or transforming that genre in any way. If you've seen movies like this before (and if you're watching something called Alien Raiders, you almost certainly have), you also know the plot beats, premise, and twists.

I'm not trying to take anything away from this movie or what first-time director Ben Rock was able to accomplish. Low-budget horror flicks are dime-a-dozen, and they're almost never handled with anywhere near this level of skill. This practical effects look good, the jump scares work, and the movie delivers a sense of dread, all without overstaying its welcome. This is good stuff. But because it's playing by the rules and conventions of its genre, it ultimately has to compete for attention with entries in that genre with far more resources. And because the genre in question is actually kind of vague, that means it's up against a lot.

The movie I'm mostly seeing this compared to online is The Thing, and... yeah, that's definitely front and center on the list of classics this is an homage to. Setting this in a rural grocery store also means is at least superficially similar to The Mist, released a year earlier. That's just setting, though: the premise is more reminiscent of the paranoid sci-fi thrillers of the '50s that The Thing was referencing. And since this (wisely) doesn't attempt to compete with The Thing's high-end special effects, it's really kind of academic that the monsters are alien parasites, rather than vampires or some other supernatural entity: the "monster among us" motif plays out more or less the same as countless other cat-and-mouse creature features.

I'm not bringing this up to criticize the movie, merely to narrow down who should consider tracking this down. Because, if you're a big enough fan of those genres and have exhausted the high-end side (and certainly if you're a completist when it comes to alien movies), this is operating at a level significantly higher than you'd expect from the budget and lack of fame. However, if the idea of "another sci-fi monster movie" sounds exhausting, this isn't going to win you over. Proceed accordingly.

The premise of the movie is revealed slowly. The movie opens more from the point-of-view of the store employees - in particular two teens working the cash registers - than the eventual heroes, who enter at closing time, pull out guns, and start taking hostages. They don't seem interested in money, but instead have one of their own checking the hostages, using some sort of psychic ability. Occasionally, they kill someone. Before they can check everyone, an undercover cop in the store kills the psychic "spotter" and calls for reinforcements, before being gunned down himself.

The armed attackers release the hostages they've cleared and lock themselves in with the others to try and determine which are being controlled by alien parasites. Without a psychic spotter (someone the aliens tried to assimilate but failed), their only option is to conduct a test, which involves cutting off a body part and seeing if it grows back. They use the pinky finger, which they quickly move to a labeled Tupperware container, so it can be reattached later (one of the hunters reveals a scar on her own hand, demonstrating she learned how to do this through experience).

Needless to say, the hostages, who haven't been brought up to speed on what's occurring (since, let's face it, they wouldn't believe it, anyway), aren't eager to go through with this experiment. As far as they can tell, they're being held by terrorists.

Outside, the police are being led by a hostage negotiator, whose stepdaughter is one of the aforementioned teens held inside. Over the course of the movie, he sees enough evidence to start believing there might be something to this whole "alien parasite hunting thing" and even helps out in the last act in exchange for getting his stepdaughter back in one piece.

Meanwhile, the table is naturally turned on the hunters, who didn't properly check the body of that dead cop earlier. Turns out he was hosting a particularly resilient parasite strong enough to reanimate the corpse, which goes on the offensive, killing several characters. Eventually the lead hunter sacrifices himself to take down the monster, only for the replacement psychic (an addict they convinced the police to bring) to determine this wasn't the "king" alien they need to find.

The movie ends with the reveal the real "king" was in the cashier whose stepfather is the negotiator, which... look, it was pretty obvious which character just conveniently kept not getting tested, but this was set up to be one of those "twists you were waiting for," as opposed to a "twist that's supposed to surprise you." So that's fine.

That's the story in a nutshell, though you may have noticed a distinct lack of Christmas. Well, this is all happening on December 20th, so the store is decorated to a realistic extent. There are also a handful of side comments about the holidays, though it certainly isn't what any of the characters are most focused on. I also didn't notice any holiday music - the soundtrack is fairly typical for the genre, with some rock songs at the start and end.

Honestly, there's not much to the holiday setting this time. The movie doesn't seem to be playing off any of the obvious thematic connections. I didn't notice any attempt to tie one of the parasites to an infant child or virgin birth, nor was this trying to do a "transition between eras" motif playing off end of year symbolism.

I initially thought the holidays might have been a simple case of incorporating decorations already present at one of the filming locations. And I still think that's a possibility: at least some sequences appear to have been shot in an actual store (unless they're repurposing a massive set prepared for a larger production - also a possibility). But someone took the time to build displays for fake products and parody advertisements, so this isn't simply a case where they're borrowing a store for night shoots (that would be hard to pull off with some of the carnage, anyway). So most likely this was a choice the filmmakers wanted included.

And I'm not entirely sure why. If Rock is trying to play off the unworldly look of the holidays, the decorations aren't sufficient to sell it - this is a grounded, realistic quality of holiday decorations, not a stylistic flourish. On top of that, the aspects of the setting that linger are those connected to the store, not the season. Alternatively, the setting could be a nod to other movies set around the holidays - Trancers, I Come in Peace, and Night of the Comet all spring to mind as movies this might be referencing, or even the grocery store sequence at the start of Cobra.

I'd still consider this a Christmas movie (as I would virtually any movie clearly set around the holidays), but it's very much a surface-level detail this time, unless I'm missing something. None of which reflects negatively on the sci-fi/action/horror aspects of the film, of course, but this isn't a movie I'd suggest targeting specifically as holiday entertainment.

For those who are fans of the genre, this is a solid entry that makes excellent use of limited resources to deliver a product notably better than you'd expect. But there's still a ceiling to how good this can be at this level, and while it reaches that ceiling, it doesn't have a way of breaking through. I think mainstream genre audiences would accept this, but - unless we're grading on a curve - it can't really compete with movies wielding budgets ten or twenty times higher. But it's still extremely impressive this is as good as it is, all things considered.