Pretty poor, even by B-movie standards. This cobbles together elements of successful sci-fi movies Alien and The Thing with a confused and dull as dishwater script that finds a group of nuclear war survivors sheltering in a government testing lab. What follows is a predictable and tension-free string of kills culminating in a final battle.
It's a shame as there are some interesting plot points (some garbled stuff about proteins and the monster appearing humanoid and "not wanting to kill us") which are dropped, presumably as nobody had the talent or discipline to tie these into a satisfying or logical payoff.
Instead we get an Alien-lite insectoid beast picking off the cast. Before that we see some of the cast "infected," creating Evil Dead-esque Deadites that ooze black blood. And very silly-looking mutant killer rats. No attempt is made to draw any of this together in any sensible fashion. And then after the main creature is slain - hey, what the hell - let's chuck a creepy baby into the mix. Actually, the baby is the best thing about this movie (the Alien/Creepozoid is actually pretty good, too, considering the low-budget look of the sets, lighting and just about everything else).
Despite these criticisms I actually enjoyed the movie. It has that low-budget 80s tone that I was looking for. Simple. Silly. The soundtrack helped a lot (this was actually pretty great if you like synthesizer soundtracks of the 80s a la John Carpenter). But for a film like this it committed the cardinal sin of being really tedious for the most part, which at only 70s minutes running time is pretty unforgivable.
It's a shame as there are some interesting plot points (some garbled stuff about proteins and the monster appearing humanoid and "not wanting to kill us") which are dropped, presumably as nobody had the talent or discipline to tie these into a satisfying or logical payoff.
Instead we get an Alien-lite insectoid beast picking off the cast. Before that we see some of the cast "infected," creating Evil Dead-esque Deadites that ooze black blood. And very silly-looking mutant killer rats. No attempt is made to draw any of this together in any sensible fashion. And then after the main creature is slain - hey, what the hell - let's chuck a creepy baby into the mix. Actually, the baby is the best thing about this movie (the Alien/Creepozoid is actually pretty good, too, considering the low-budget look of the sets, lighting and just about everything else).
Despite these criticisms I actually enjoyed the movie. It has that low-budget 80s tone that I was looking for. Simple. Silly. The soundtrack helped a lot (this was actually pretty great if you like synthesizer soundtracks of the 80s a la John Carpenter). But for a film like this it committed the cardinal sin of being really tedious for the most part, which at only 70s minutes running time is pretty unforgivable.