Tuk-tuk-tuk-tomahawk... I will no longer watch the early films of Fred Allen Ray. Honestly. I don’t even want to watch movies. But if they do, I will not look at the early ones. What “Death of an Alien” is, that it is – the beginning of creeps, preparation for the jump into the thrash pool, the usual amateur sketches in the style of “I am still like this – but I will grow up, but how will I shoot something!” – anything, but not movies. And certainly not movies that should be rolled in theaters (and indeed rolled!).
The main problem with these early exercises is that Alain Ray filmed them on absolutely serious scales. He tried to use gouache-painted 'zombies' to show the epidemic in 'Death of an Alien', here he tries to tell the story of young archaeologists and evil Indian spirits as something terrible, sincerely not realizing that the story is not history at all, but a dull blunder, and the local budget could be given to someone Jim Winorsky. Who's not a genius either. But Jim has a cheerful idiocy, enthusiasm, the realization that his film will not go beyond the hands of some joyful pimple geek, who has all the walls covered with posters from “Death catcher” or a friendly company that will break this film to “beat”.
Well, this is -- sorry, but it's hard to watch a movie that shows some shaman in a toy lion mask in complete seriousness. And then the upper lip starts twitching at the mask, and you realize that the mask is not a mask, but supposedly a head. That's where it gets scary. Although, with special effects, everything is not particularly bad - you can watch the scenes of atrocities without vomiting - the scalp will be removed (it is necessary to correspond to the name) and the neck will be opened quite acceptable and bloody, but this is not for long.
What I don't understand is camera work. Why is the night so crooked in this movie? At first they (operators, two of them) honestly hung a dark filter on the lens - they say that it is night (with a clear blue sky, but night). Then the filter was apparently forgotten and filmed as is, and some scenes “in nature” were clearly filmed in some room (I wanted to say “pavilion”, but in time I came to my senses), because the ass is pitch black. Probably, the operators worked inconsistently, so this is the provision.
Actors predictably screw up, and screw up a lot. After Buster Crabbe from the “Death of an Alien” in the clutches of Olen Ray, by the way, got another forgotten hero of the past – Kirk Elin, former Superman. And every second of his stay in the frame (good for a few seconds) literally shouts that Elin in the archaeologist’s cap on the move is wasting all the remnants of his former dignity, turning from an idol of old times into “Former star will be removed for food” of the performer. Young actors, playing young archaeologists, heroically, with grimaces of replay or vice versa - extreme laziness with honor went from nowhere to nowhere, without even making a semblance of a career. Amen.
And finally, I can’t help kicking the Scalps for rocking the action for a monstrous long time. It was 45 minutes before anyone was raped. The background all this time played quite good, but very budget synthesizer music in the form of otherworldly rises, but then the sound began to slide into some tiririkanny, and even play out of place. But one way or another - I have few claims to the work of composers, but to the rest - many times more. Cheap, uninteresting, protracted, meaningless and unnecessary. But this tape - like a bunch of such thrash - quite rightly dragged into a pool of oblivion and worthlessness - for it would be scary to see someday on the shelves of Scalps: 2-Disc Collectors Gold Special Edition Deluxe. Though, secretly, I would. It would be interesting to see an interview with Alain Ray, in which he would describe in detail the painstaking process of creating a masterpiece lion's head. . .
3 out of 10