Dark Breed

1997 "The Unknown Has Revealed Itself"
4.2| 1h44m| R| en
Details

Captain Saxon, an agent for the top secret Omega agency, has been given the assignment of tracking down and either capturing or killing the crew members of a secret space mission who returned to Earth against orders. It seems that they were all infected with an alien parasite, and they were trying to bring its eggs back to Earth. The eggs were lost in an accident, and both Saxon and the astronauts are trying to locate them.

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Reviews

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Comeuppance Reviews Nick Saxon (Scalia) is an ex-Special Forces Vietnam veteran (of course), so when a crew of astronauts returns infected with an alien virus, naturally Saxon is the first person the government calls to stop the spread of these body-snatching interlopers (wonder where they got that idea...). So Saxon and his team are working on stopping the astro-nuts, who predated the diaper-wearing astro-nut from the news of a few years ago by many years. But it's personal for Scalia, sorry, Saxon, because his buddy Joseph Shay (Banks) is one of the unfortunate astronauts taken over by an alien presence. Will Saxon don his Denim and Leather and come out victorious against the alien baddies? Judging by the fact that most of the scenes are too dark to see, Dark Breed is indeed an apt title. Or maybe they could have called it Dark Screen. Which leads us to the schizophrenic nature of this movie. The sci-fi scenes are dark (as if we haven't made that sufficiently clear yet), almost as if to hide their shame at making a sci-fi slog. But as for the action scenes, most of them are shot in daylight and are clearly and appropriately lit. That's normally the way with PM, but maybe they were experimenting with the "moodier" feel of the day, which was ahead of its time, as many movies and TV shows are severely underlit today. So if you're interested in seeing PM experiment with darkness, here is certainly a place to check that out. But we can't honestly say we're on board with it this time. Thank goodness for the plentiful muzzle flashes and blow-ups, because they provide the only light in many scenes.But the action is classic PM, with high-quality explosions, plenty of car stunts, and much gun-shooting. When it settles back into sci-fi territory, the movie inevitably slows down. But we're such PM fans, we had to see this movie, even though we don't like sci-fi slogs. But scenes like the highway chase where Scalia is riding along the back of a truck on an upturned satellite dish are vintage PM and start to turn the movie back in good graces. The scene is reminiscent of PM classic Last Man Standing (1996) and easily could have appeared in that gem. Plus you can actually see the scene, so it stands out from a lot of the rest of the proceedings. But the movie as a whole is a sci-fi actioner, kind of in the vein of Peacemaker (1990). So if you liked that, you might like this.Most of the dialogue consists of characters saying other characters' names repeatedly, almost reaching Airplane! (1980) levels at times. Of course, that's not when the aliens start making pig noises. Even though the aliens are supposed to be scary and malevolent, they sound like a mash up of Babe, Gordy and Arnold Ziffel in the midst of a slop fight. In other cast news Sal Landi, who has been in plenty of movies reviewed on this site, here plays "Zim" Zimmerman, also predating a certain news story. And fan favorite George "Buck" Flower even finds time to stop by in the midst of all the craziness. Tying it all together is Scalia, who looks like a stone statue carved of Treat Williams.In the end, this movie is at war with itself. It's sci-fi sloggery vs. tried-and-true action. If you don't mind your action punctuated by literally dark, boring scenes (or if you genuinely like sci-fi, which is also a possibility), you might be able to extract some enjoyment from Dark Breed.
Vomitron_G Sh!t from outer space keeps crashing onto earth at the start of this movie. First a spaceship with evil alien parasite-infected astronauts. Then a cocoon-canister with alien eggs. Then another lifepod thing with a female astronaut inhabited by a good alien. The female is the ex-wife of Jack Scalia, and he is the star and co-producer of this thrill-ride sci-fi/horror action-fest (okay, I'm exaggerating things a little bit here). Scalia & his alienized ex-wife have to team up to stop the evil astronauts, as they are here to take over the world (with the bunch of eggs helping them to inevitably create an alien army). There's one cool car-chase sequence early on in the movie (actually, it's a truck-chase sequence and why those aliens decided to steal a truck is beyond me). The rest of the film contains a lot of shooting and military folks running around. The special effects are passable, some highlights: the space shuttle crashing in the harbor, a pretty gory autopsy sequence and two nifty rubber suited aliens near the end. At one point or another, "Dark Breed" might remind you of films like "The Hidden" (good alien teaming up with a human to kill the bad aliens) and perhaps even "Predator" (the facial design of one of the evil aliens). Needles to say those are far better movies than "Dark Breed". But it gains an extra point for blowing up a lot of things.
lastliberal Remember Mad Libs? I just know that they have one where you insert the names and they crank out canned dialog that is appropriate to movies like this. Sorry, Richard, but you need to stay on strike as this script is atrocious! The only good thing about this movie is the special effects and the fireworks. There was lots of loud explosions and numerous bullets expended in the making of this film. There were some really neat effects as the parasites took control of the astronauts. The creatures were nifty. That's it, folks.If your toenails are clipped and you've nothing else to do, it will pass for some excitement. Just don't listen to the crappy clichés throughout. They'll make you groan.
wsmith-26 This is an Alien copycat that doesn't have scary monsters and the plot is mixed up. The astronauts inhabited by aliens for some reason are only inhabited part of the time. Why? I don't know and it doesn't matter. You know they are inhabited because they all of a sudden speak in a stupid computerized "scary" voice that isn't scary. The astronauts go places, but it doesn't matter. Then, they rip off the Terminator by having another alien that can kill them. By this time you are extremely bored and don't care. There are, however, lots of explosions. And there is the obligatory "man running away from large explosion just ahead of the leaping flames" scene. Yawn.