 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: First Contact • Year: 2023 • Country: USA • Director: Bruce Wemple • Main cast: Anna Shields, James Liddell, Chris Cimperman, Caitlin Duffy, Paul Kandarian • Runtime: 89 minutes • Production company: 377 Films, Traverse Terror, Uncork’d Entertainment (distribution) • TRAILER
|
First Contact (2023) is an entertaining hybrid between horror, science-fiction, and thriller, which are three of your favorite genres if you are a frequent reader of this magazine. The story might not be the most original one, and the budget limit is manifest when it comes to action sequences and visual effects, but the whole package deserves no contempt in the genre of indie filmmaking.
The family situation of the two estranged siblings meeting after their father is gone is pretty forced, and in the first steps of the movie one could think this fact could become a burden, but soon the movie takes an intriguing storyline closer to the early The X-Files (1993–2018) episodes that put together the plot.
The menace of extraterrestrial forces having bad intentions towards us as a civilization is patent through the entire running time, keeping the unsetting vibe present in most of the scenes. And here is where the movie shows off its more potent cards, distancing itself from other titles that might move more into the action and explosions, the special effects overuse, or a contemplative drama. In First Contact (2023), the thrill is what dominates.
That won’t exclude us from witnessing some violent scenes, horrifying mutations, and seeing how your beloved ones turn into creatures not from this world. The bloody and brawling sequences are well distributed throughout the whole film duration in order to keep some surprises and excitement in the watch.
The actors are believable in their performances, with the special mention of the two female performers, the daughter of the disproved scientist searching for answers played by Anna Shields, and the young lover that sees how her boyfriend is turning slowly into a monstrous creature with nothing in common with the one she care of, played by Caitlin Duffy.
At some moments, I had the feeling of watching something from the 1980s and 1990s, in the line of The Hidden (1987) or The Arrival (1996), two essential features with which First Contact (2023) can’t compete against but surely served as inspiration sources. So if you are into science-fiction, alien abduction flicks, or just into the mysteries of the universe, this movie can bring you a new story to feed up your hunger for entertainment. Surely not the most innovative movie you can find, but it is a title that can provide an hour and a half of entertainment and even some moments to keep in your memory for a few days.
RATE: 5.5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt24070610
