Linbeymusol
Wonderful character development!
CheerupSilver
Very Cool!!!
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
JohnHowardReid
Despite its current unavailability, Unearthly Stranger enjoys a considerable cult following among dedicated sci-fi fans—and no wonder! Admittedly very low budget, but nonetheless highly entertaining, this movie represents science fiction horror at its very best. True, the basic idea seems at first a trifle ridiculous, but it's developed with such logic, precision and acumen employing sharply dramatic dialogue and intriguing situations, it quickly becomes both meaningful and acceptable. In fact the suspense was so electrifying, my palms were sweating, my hair prickling. I wanted to get up and turn the lights on, but I couldn't move. My eyes were riveted to the screen. The cast is small, but this concentration enhances rather than dispels atmosphere. All the acting comes across as uniformly excellent, with every performer contributing outstanding work. Director Krish is obviously a television graduate, yet here the close-ups are not only strikingly handled and dramatically most effective but used with both imagination and economy. Krish actually knows when to use close-ups and when to fall back on long shots and medium angles. Believe me, this is a rare quality among television men!
Sturgeon54
Even though I'm a fan of obscure movies, it's amazing to me that I even heard of this movie, much less find a copy, but I consider it worth the effort. The stark minimalism technique makes this like a slightly extended episode of an anthology series like "The Twilight Zone" (and the running time is still quite short at 75 minutes). The one word I think that best describes this movie is "competent." In other words, the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing; they had to, I suppose, working with what seems an almost non-existent budget. They knew how to elicit an emotional reaction of claustrophobia from the audience - something few filmmakers can do exceptionally well in the sci-fi genre - Ridley Scott's "Alien" is one other film that comes to mind. Every bizarre angular shot composition, every set piece, every facial close-up, every soundtrack cue, is blended seamlessly to make the viewer sweat.For science fiction, this movie is very unique - even for a typically-cerebral British sci-fi production. There are no slimy aliens to look at, no space craft, and no robots. Instead, like the storyline itself, all the suspense comes from the viewer's own imagination. If you can find it, I highly recommend seeing this at night. The only other movie I can think of which demonstrates such continuous suspense with scant resources is Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 film noir "Detour." I almost think they should show this as a primer to film students on how to make a film successfully with little or no money.
austex23
There are a handful of fine films that have never been released on tape or disk. Sometimes they show up on the few independent TV stations around the country that still have access to the old collections of movies that used to circulate in the days before cable. Nearly lost films, except in the memories of people who saw them at drive-ins or on TV before the current age of homogenous viewing. Unearthly Stranger is a perfect example of this kind of film. Not the masterpiece that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, Unearthly Stranger is still a wonderful science fiction story with trappings of the paranoia that characterizes Body Snatchers, I Married a Monster, and other, earlier, SF films. Stranger was a throwback when it was new, and that may be why it was pretty much ignored when it was released. With DVD releases of an awful lot of true garbage, there really is no excuse for the continued neglect of this stylish, almost lost movie.
bella-6
To call this modest British film low budget is the worst kind of misrepresentation: the budget on creativity and skill at work here surpasses that found in most multi-million dollar productions.Filmed in stark black-and-white with virtually no visual effects, "Unearthly Stranger" relies on sheer dramatic power to tell its story of an alien plan to sabotage Earth's developing ability for space travel. The film is written and directed with care and performed with a conviction that brings across the suspense and humanity of this story in a way rarely seen in the genre.Many of the filmmakers would soon be working on TV's "The Avengers", including producer Albert Fennell and director John Krish. Fans of that series will also recognize many familiar faces among the cast. The strongest performances come from John Neville, distinguished stage actor and teacher, and the almost-unknown and very beautiful Gabriella Licudi who, in the title role, brings the concept of interplanetary communications to an entirely new level.The odd man out in this production is certainly scenarist Rex Carlton. On the basis of this film, it is almost inconceivable that he is the same man responsible for the lurid "Brain That Wouldn't Die" and "Blood of Dracula's Castle", among others. One is tempted to give credit to Jeffrey Stone, who penned the original screen story. But this is a claim that's impossible to support, because Stone was involved as a writer on no other films. So, one can only say that none of Carlton's other screen work would ever approach the level of this, his most subtle and affecting accomplishment.It is well worth tracking down for any fan of fine science fiction or, indeed, any fan of quality filmmaking.
