One of the more arrestingly off-beat "ALIEN" sci-fi/horror variants to materialize in the early to mid 80's, this compellingly uneasy combination of drearily conventional domestic drama and totally off-the-wall sci-fi/horror weirdness starts out fairly mundane, but eventually erupts into all-out credibility-be-damned jaw-dropping surrealism as its oddball plot unfolds. A man who was abducted by aliens returns home after a long absence and makes a faltering attempt at regaining his previous ordinary life with horrifically disastrous consequences for both himself and his family. Acting, direction and narrative coherence take a back seat to an alarming succession of increasingly daft, shocking and gloriously grotesque graphic set pieces: a luckless lady who's been brutally raped by a hideous extraterrestrial crab-like beast gives painful, life-taking birth to a fully grown man (nasty!) in a truly gag-inducing scene, a half-human, half-alien guy causes a pay phone to melt after he touches it, comely French au pair girl and future James Bond movie starlet Maryam ("The Living Daylights") d'Abo gets wrapped up in a cocoon that's located directly above the bathroom shower so she can be used as an incubator for alien eggs (luckily the luscious Maryam gets to do two eye-popping and much-appreciated gratuitous nude scenes prior to meeting this ghastly fate),d'Abo's libidinous boyfriend winds up being mauled by a panther after being chased around the house by a dangerous animated toy tank (yes, you read that correctly),and, in perhaps the film's single most stupendously strange sequence, a GI Joe doll gets blown up to normal man size so it can come to life and take out a snoopy old lady neighbor (I'm honestly not making this crazy stuff up). Amid all this magnificently messed-up lunacy the movie's "you can't go back home" subtext somehow manages to acquire a certain cock-eyed poignancy that's in equal degrees oddly affecting and genuinely unnerving. Alas, this terrifically twisted and authentically outré treat was followed by a couple of dire, scarcely related by-the-numbers sequels which sadly lack the original's startlingly unpredictable free-form approach to telling a story.

An unpleasant low-budget effort that's definitely not for the squeamish, this British sci-fi film occasionally hits the mark but more often than not is just a confusing failure. Made at a time when the industry was just about dead in this country, XTRO follows the same path as the films of Norman J. Warren (eg. INSEMINOID) in creating a deeply disgusting - and often disturbing - little film with lots of cheap but effective effects work. The film starts off with an intriguing alien abduction plot - always guaranteed to give me the shivers - before turning into routine stalk-and-slash territory in which the small cast are just about all wiped out. However; this does deserve some credit for at least being partially original (although it follows in the wake of ALIENS, the films couldn't be more different other than they have a killer alien in them); the often bizarre and uncomfortable death scenes have been seen nowhere else.

XTRO is a memorable movie but for all the wrong reasons. Chiefly memorable are the sick and deeply unpleasant special effects work which overcome their low budget to rival any big-budget film from the same period. The cast is generally uninspired, although all of the actors and actresses do have some experience, I've found. Philip Sayer manages to be quite spooky at times as Sam. Bernice Stegers is fine as Rachel, but her character does some stupid things (like go back with Sam when he arrives) which make her unlikeable. Probably the nicest person of the lot is the unsuspecting Joe who gets murdered for his actions! Later Bond girl Maryam d'Abo plays the nanny and has a nude scene periodically. Meanwhile, a pair of dwarfs called Tok and Tik play the action man and the monster respectively, adding to the intrigue. XTRO isn't a very nice film to watch but if you really want to be horrified in a bad way I would recommend it. An example of the effects that can be created with a fevered imagination and not much money.

Tony's father Sam, abducted by aliens three years earlier, returns to earth and seeks out his wife and son, but Rachel has since been living with Joe and the reunion is awkward. Joe does not trust Sam, and Rachel cannot quite decide what her feelings are for her two men. Sam is not the same as when he left, and he begins affecting Tony in frightening ways.

This is one of the strangest films I have seen. And I have seen many strange films, wading as I do in horror, fantasy and cult flicks. This one is... well, hard to say. Definitely horror and definitely science fiction, but far too strange to be a straight narrative in either genre.

One suspects the budget was zero, as nobody of note was involved in the picture. Bob Shaye produced for New Line, but this was before New Line had really gotten to be a big name. And yet, budget or not, we have some of the finest practical effects and creature designs you may ever see.