The Film Vindicator Review: Threshold

Ah yes Threshold another guilty pleasure film from the Sci-Fi channel that premiered in 2003.

So we start off in the orbit of earth where an astronaut is making repairs on their shuttle-craft from the outside. Suddenly a cloud of space-dust approaches the shuttle-craft. With the astronaut still outside a tiny meteor from the space-dust penetrates his suit and embeds into his arm. After the shuttle returns to earth the injured astronaut is taken to a hospital where things take a turn for the weird. His injured arm starts to grow weird cocoons which outcomes dozens of moths. A medical officer Dr. Jerome "Geronimo" Horne (played by Nicholas Lea) and an entomologist Dr. Savannah Bailey (played by Jamie Luner) are called in to examine the body of the astronaut. They discovered alien DNA which came from the tiny meteor was genetically altering the astronaut into some type of human with insect characteristics and an extra set of insect arms. Later at a neighborhood in Houston; the space moths swarmed on the unexpected Frank Hansen (played by Steve Bacic) infecting him with the alien DNA. So now the infected Frank goes on the search for other infested humans to begin their new evolution. Geronimo and Savannah came across an infected woman who was reported missing. They examine the body after the infected woman died of starvation and discovered she had a B-negative blood type.

So it's established that the alien moths can infect people who have B-negative blood types while the people who don't are lunch. That's right if you're not B-negative you're basically food not just to the space moths but to the infected as well. So infected Frank sneaks into a blood bank and gathers a list of people with B-negative blood types in Houston. Obviously the film pads out with the infected gathering people with B-negative blood types. Geronimo and Savannah propose to the government that they have to find where the infected are nesting and destroy them. Instead of you know nuke the site from orbit. Let's face it that kind of response is never the perfect solution in most sci-fi films. Because otherwise the planet would already be F'ed up the ass a thousand times over. Anyway they must destroy the nest before the infected reach the "threshold" population. So Geronimo and Savannah manage to find the nest at a cargo ship. They've encounter some resistance from the infected but they managed to cause the ship's engine to go into overload. Ultimately causing the ship to explode killing all of the space moths and the infected...or did it? Yes there are a few space moths that survived the explosion and yet no sequel has ever been thought up. And trust me its better that way.

My Final Verdict: This film has that 60s sci-fi feel that really tickles me in a good way. There's not all that much of creature F/X except for the space moths. But for the infected they keep the F/X simple and not all that over-the-stop and honestly I prefer it that way for a film like Threshold. I mean would you really watch this film if the infected turned into poorly CGI insect creatures? So I fully recommend watching this with some enthusiasm. Let's see October's coming real soon so to celebrate Halloween I'm reviewing 5 films through the month of October starting with Dog Soldiers. Stay tuned.

The Film Vindicator Review: Darklight

The Sci-Fi channel has it fair share of films that ether cheesy but good, kinda fair, or just straight bad in most standards in story, acting, and special effects. Darklight in my opinion is one of those cheesy but good films. The film came out in 2004 and if you have cable at the time you may have watched it on the Sci-Fi channel. And yes I still call it the "Sci-Fi" channel not that other word that looks like an acronym of a new type of syphilis.

So the film starts off with a opening narration about Adam's first wife Lilith and how she rejected him as her equal. The narration farther explains that Lilith was made from the earth and a magical substance called darklight; therefore possessing demonic powers and appearance. In present day a secret society called the Faith was able to capture her putting an end to her eternal wrath. Three years later we'll introduce to Elle (played by Shiri Appleby) who lives with her guardian and has no memory of who she is. We cut to a secret lab where we are introduced to one of the antagonist of the film Anders Raeborne (played by David Hewlett). Who's been experimenting with an extract from Lilith's blood in attempt to become immortal. After succeeding he becomes a Demonicus and sets to kill a scientific research team that rejected his theory on extended longevity. One of Faith agents William Shaw (played by Richard Burgi) is informed about the Demonicus and is order to find and train Elle (who is actually Lilith before losing her memories). Shaw quickly declines since Lilith was the one who killed his son prior to her capture three years ago. But with some convincing by Faith leader Prefect (played by Ross Manarchy) Shaw accepts this mission.

Bit by bit Elle/Lilith starts to get flashes of her memories. Lilith returns home to find her guardian killed by Raeborne/Demonicus Shaw enters the house rescuing Lilith and escaping. The next few scenes are Shaw helping Lilith to remember her ancient past and then train her on controlling her darklight powers. Early in the film it's been told that Raeborne/Demonicus is carrying the Red Plague and can infect anyone through its bite and tongue. However, the red plague can be cure by extracting an enzyme from its brain. So it's up to Lilith and Shaw to destroy the Demonicus and retrieve its head to develop an antidote. I'm skipping ahead to the near end so there may be some spoilers. Lilith and Shaw head to an abandon warehouse where they fell into a trap set up by Raeborne and Faith Director Chapel (played by John de Lancie). Chapel's intention is start an apocalypse to prove that not only evil exists it prevails...just go with. Basically he used Raeborne to tamper with darklight ultimately starting the red plague. Raeborne chances back to the Demonicus and heads out to kill his father while Lilith and Shaw manage to escape from the warehouse. Shaw heads after Chapel and then kills him before escaping while Lilith heads after Raeborne/Demonicus to protect his father. The film ends with Lilith killing the Raeborne/Demonicus through DECAPITATION...and finally curing the population from the red plague.

My Final Verdict: The whole Lilith mythology seems to be cliff-noted but did does get the plot started. The special effects on the demonic form Lilith and the Demonicus are decent they're not as terrible as the special effects from any Asylum film that's been made. So for something to kill time or just to shut off your brain for a while I recommend watching Darklight. You know what I think I just have enough guilty pleasure for one more film from Sci-Fi. So stay tuned next time as I review Threshold.