51

Only a couple of weeks back I cast my roving eye over Tigon’s "Body Stealers" which featured Sean Connery’s brother Neil. Well, this week it is Sean’s son, actor in his own right, Jason Connery, who gets behind the camera to direct the latest After Dark Original to make its transition from silver screen to silver disc. It is, of course, the monster on the loose yarn simply titled "51".

When Claire Fallon (Vanessa Branch), is given the opportunity, along with another journalist, Sam Whitaker (John Shea), to access the enigmatic and stealthy AREA 51, she is determined to lift the lid on the heinous secrets she believes the government are keeping from the public. Claire, we soon learn, was recently awarded the coveted title of owning the ‘primary independent news blog in America’ is an all-round sharp cookie.

While the tour is in progress she doesn’t miss an opportunity to try and quiz the party’s guide, Colonel Martin (Bruce Boxleitner). But although some incredibly advanced technology is showcased, Claire still thinks the government are hiding something. Her suspicions are confirmed in spectacular fashion one of the covert captives, an alien named Patient Zero, takes advantage of the compromised security. The extra-terrestrial being has the uncanny ability of being able to imitate any living thing it touches, including their voice. Desperate to escape by any means necessary, Patient Zero drops a clanger by inadvertently freeing some of the other beasts held within the surreptitious compound, each with their own unique advanced capabilities.

The crew now have to put their differences behind them and work together before a literal devastating time bomb explodes thus freeing AREA 51’s vile inhabitants and sealing humanities’ doom once and for all...

As with a couple of the other movies under After Dark Originals moniker, 51 suffers slightly when making its DVD debut. Not that it is a bad movie. The first half especially is great fun. I particularly liked the Patient Zero fiend’s contribution and appearance, whose moist veined skin was truly grotesque and whose ability to morph before our protagonists eyes made for some clever and fast paced action sequences.

A couple of popular beliefs held by conspiracy theorists also were subtly weaved into the narrative. For example, the concept that we, as a society, are being "dumbed down" in order to be controlled by the powers that be, was adhered to with Patient Zero’s custodial care. Being micro-chipped along with being fed a daily mix of gaseous drug (yes please!) and his favourite band on loop on headphones to keep him docile and compliant. (Give me Blood Ceremony and Electric Wizard instead of the techno dancey stuff and I’m there dude!!).

But second time round some of the frailties of 51 became evident in the latter half of the movie. The characters were just a little too safe in there stereotypical roles. We have the US military with their over exuberant allegiance to the stars and stripes along with the usual fusion of macho ego’s colliding on cue. Then there are the journalists who are at odds. The career driven mainstream face of TV Sam Whitaker pitched against Miss Fallon, whose granite principles overrode any notions of popularity.

The covert military technology that was officially exhibited in the tour was notably absent of a time machine. Ironic really as a couple of the aliens were yanked straight out of the 1980’s beast flicks such as CHUD and XTRO!! To be honest that is a little harsh – I bemoan the overuse of CGI so can’t have it both ways can I?

Unless you are a complete newcomer to the Sci-Fi Horror genre, the viewer will not get any prizes for seeing some rather obvious references to extra-terrestrial classics of a couple of decades back. John Carpenters edge of the seat, hot wire in blood tests in The Thing is replicated here in a far more mundane form. Connery also owes Aliens a huge debt for some scenes which were just a little too close in mimicking the 1986 terror epic.

On a more positive note, there were, at least, regular splashes of gore to hold my interest!

I do appreciate what After Dark are trying to achieve with their contemporary, refreshingly imaginative fare and I am certainly looking forward to a 2012 UK Horrorfest. But when their DVD releases are bereft of any notable extras apart from trailers promoting previously released titles, it is probably more reasonable to expect folk to spend their hard earned cash on renting titles such as 51 as oppose to purchasing.

Review by Marc Lissenburg