Dark Breed (1996) User Reviews

Things Explode!

[zeppo-2 · 4/10 · 11 October 2005]

Actually, things explode a lot! Much of the film's budget must have gone on explosives, cars explode, buildings explode, everything explodes at some point....

The special effects are pretty well staged for a low-budget,straight to DVD/video but the plot gets a bit lost in all the smoke. And I couldn't help feeling there was a really good story trying hard to get out along the way. I would have preferred the film to concentrate on the characters a bit more rather than just sketching them as one dimensional stereotypes. The film was at it's most interesting when it went into 'conspiracy theory' territory.

Sadly, most action films are judged on their special effects these days and if you want a film with lots of action, albeit it all a bit pointless at times, this will suit you fine.

If there is ever Dark Breed 2, be nice to have more story and less explosions.

Not so dark, not really breeding either

[Vomitron_G · 5/10 · 23 February 2012]

Sh!t from outer space keeps crashing onto earth at the start of this movie. First a spaceship with evil alien parasite-infected astronauts. Then a cocoon-canister with alien eggs. Then another lifepod thing with a female astronaut inhabited by a good alien. The female is the ex-wife of Jack Scalia, and he is the star and co-producer of this thrill-ride sci-fi/horror action-fest (okay, I'm exaggerating things a little bit here). Scalia & his alienized ex-wife have to team up to stop the evil astronauts, as they are here to take over the world (with the bunch of eggs helping them to inevitably create an alien army). There's one cool car-chase sequence early on in the movie (actually, it's a truck-chase sequence and why those aliens decided to steal a truck is beyond me). The rest of the film contains a lot of shooting and military folks running around. The special effects are passable, some highlights: the space shuttle crashing in the harbor, a pretty gory autopsy sequence and two nifty rubber suited aliens near the end. At one point or another, "Dark Breed" might remind you of films like "The Hidden" (good alien teaming up with a human to kill the bad aliens) and perhaps even "Predator" (the facial design of one of the evil aliens). Needles to say those are far better movies than "Dark Breed". But it gains an extra point for blowing up a lot of things.

PM films: Glass's natural enemy

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 30 November 2015]

There sure are a lot of panes of glass destroyed in this PM production, involving a bunch of astronauts coming back from space infested with evil aliens hell bent on taking over the Earth. The leader of the aliens is Mike from Breaking Bad, but, you see, he's also still a good guy underneath.

Their former Captain is out to track them down, along with his ex-wife (who also has an alien in her), some evil G-men, etc etc. It's a PM film, and therefore chock-full of car chases, explosions, and a rather large amount of people being thrown through panes of glass.

I was expecting this to be your usual run of the mill 'people running around a warehouse being chased by aliens' film, that only really happens at the end (and via a flashback also). When the aliens do appear, they are rather, eh, Predator like, but I wasn't complaining as they laid waste to all the G-men.

Throw in some mild gore, loads of gunfights, some not bad car chases, and plenty on nineties cheese and you have all you need to pass the time while you're waiting to die.

One thing: In some scenes the alien contact lenses seem to have been inserted incorrectly.

Worth a watch if you catch it on TV, but no more than that.

[aloep · 24 June 2004]

*Mild spoilers*

Back in the mid 90's, PM Entertainment put out a large number of highly entertaining straight to video action flicks. Producer Joseph Merhi usually also directed most of the standard action vehicles, while Richard Pepin would do the ones with a Sci-Fi theme (Cybertracker, The Sender, The Silencers etc.). Having really enjoyed The Silencers and both Cybertracker movies, I decided to give Dark Breed a go. It also had Jack Scalia in the lead, who did a fine job in his other movie with Richard Pepin, The Silencers.

Dark Breed has all the usual elements of an entertaining actioner with a Sci Fi theme. Car chases, gun battles, explosions, the PM trademark of tons of glass breaking and this time, some very decent looking special effects for the time, especially for DTV material. So if you like that sort of stuff, what is there not to like? Looking at the credits, I noticed some of the people responsible for the FX went onto do FX in several big budgeted productions. It appears that Pepin has probably blown a large amount of the budget around that and not bothered to build a competent movie around it.

The single biggest flaw about Dark Breed is basically the fact that it just isn't that interesting to watch. As previously mentioned, everything is there but what made the other PM movies so much fun all seems watered down or poorly handled. It all starts off well enough, with 2 young lovers in a car and a ship coming and landing in the lake beside them. The effects here are neat, and then we're treated to a reasonable chase scene where the "Alien parasites" hijack a truck carrying a mobile home with a good number of smashes and a big explosion at the end. However, it all goes downhill from there. The pace is sluggish, what is only 93 minutes long feels like much more. The cast seems to be completely lacking in any kind of enthusiasm, and just provides "Can I have my paycheque now?" performances. The gunfights are all very, very dull and the fact that they're all set among warehouses and wastegrounds doesn't help. About 45 minutes into the movie, we're treated to a car chase involving Jack Scalia being pulled along on a satellite dish by a van while being pursued by the villains. The camera angles are well done, the stunts are excellent and we're treated to some nice explosions involving a van and several cars. However, what mostly ruins this scene is the fact that the weather changes between each cut, at first the sun is shining, then the road appears wet at one point, then towards the end the sun is shining again. It's only a minor glitch, but one which could have been easily avoided and only cheapens the look of the movie.

So you probably get the picture of what "Dark Breed" is like. It's not a bad movie, but when there's so many other movies which do similar, and do it better, I can't think of any reason to recommend Dark Breed. If you're going to see a PM movie, this isn't the one to start with. Try Executive Target, Rage or Last Man Standing. If you want one of their Sci-Fi themed movies, try The Silencers or CyberTracker. If Dark Breed is on TV, give it a go, just don't go out of your way to find it.

Aliens Meets the Terminator

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 23 February 2008]

Remember Mad Libs? I just know that they have one where you insert the names and they crank out canned dialog that is appropriate to movies like this. Sorry, Richard, but you need to stay on strike as this script is atrocious! The only good thing about this movie is the special effects and the fireworks. There was lots of loud explosions and numerous bullets expended in the making of this film. There were some really neat effects as the parasites took control of the astronauts. The creatures were nifty. That's it, folks.

If your toenails are clipped and you've nothing else to do, it will pass for some excitement. Just don't listen to the crappy clichés throughout. They'll make you groan.

Lots of Cheesy Action

[Rainey-Dawn · 3/10 · 8 September 2017]

Starts out with a space shuttle crashing into the water, the military stands by and getting ready to rescue the people inside w/ a fear of contamination. The guys that crashed jump out of the water (infected by the aliens) and starts killing, jumps into vehicles and the military chases after them - car crashes and things explode during the high speed chase! Next the military are after them for the rest of the film and there are scientist/doctors that want to check out the men infected.

The infected men will go back to being themselves and then the aliens will take them back over again - so there is some back and forth with that going on.

We have no idea why the aliens are wanting to take over earth... but they have eggs to hatch to "raise" an army of their own to do so. Maybe the earthlings made them mad to begin with by trying to take there eggs.

Lots of cheesy 80s action going on in this 1996 film... if you like that and aliens then you might like this movie!! 3/10

Misses

[wsmith-26 · 2/10 · 3 November 2006]

This is an Alien copycat that doesn't have scary monsters and the plot is mixed up. The astronauts inhabited by aliens for some reason are only inhabited part of the time. Why? I don't know and it doesn't matter. You know they are inhabited because they all of a sudden speak in a stupid computerized "scary" voice that isn't scary. The astronauts go places, but it doesn't matter. Then, they rip off the Terminator by having another alien that can kill them. By this time you are extremely bored and don't care. There are, however, lots of explosions. And there is the obligatory "man running away from large explosion just ahead of the leaping flames" scene. Yawn.

Most of the scenes are too dark to see...they could have called it Dark Screen.

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 7 October 2014]

Nick Saxon (Scalia) is an ex-Special Forces Vietnam veteran (of course), so when a crew of astronauts returns infected with an alien virus, naturally Saxon is the first person the government calls to stop the spread of these body-snatching interlopers (wonder where they got that idea...). So Saxon and his team are working on stopping the astro-nuts, who predated the diaper-wearing astro-nut from the news of a few years ago by many years. But it's personal for Scalia, sorry, Saxon, because his buddy Joseph Shay (Banks) is one of the unfortunate astronauts taken over by an alien presence. Will Saxon don his Denim and Leather and come out victorious against the alien baddies? Judging by the fact that most of the scenes are too dark to see, Dark Breed is indeed an apt title. Or maybe they could have called it Dark Screen. Which leads us to the schizophrenic nature of this movie. The sci-fi scenes are dark (as if we haven't made that sufficiently clear yet), almost as if to hide their shame at making a sci-fi slog. But as for the action scenes, most of them are shot in daylight and are clearly and appropriately lit. That's normally the way with PM, but maybe they were experimenting with the "moodier" feel of the day, which was ahead of its time, as many movies and TV shows are severely underlit today. So if you're interested in seeing PM experiment with darkness, here is certainly a place to check that out. But we can't honestly say we're on board with it this time. Thank goodness for the plentiful muzzle flashes and blow-ups, because they provide the only light in many scenes.

But the action is classic PM, with high-quality explosions, plenty of car stunts, and much gun-shooting. When it settles back into sci-fi territory, the movie inevitably slows down. But we're such PM fans, we had to see this movie, even though we don't like sci-fi slogs. But scenes like the highway chase where Scalia is riding along the back of a truck on an upturned satellite dish are vintage PM and start to turn the movie back in good graces. The scene is reminiscent of PM classic Last Man Standing (1996) and easily could have appeared in that gem. Plus you can actually see the scene, so it stands out from a lot of the rest of the proceedings. But the movie as a whole is a sci-fi actioner, kind of in the vein of Peacemaker (1990). So if you liked that, you might like this.

Most of the dialogue consists of characters saying other characters' names repeatedly, almost reaching Airplane! (1980) levels at times. Of course, that's not when the aliens start making pig noises. Even though the aliens are supposed to be scary and malevolent, they sound like a mash up of Babe, Gordy and Arnold Ziffel in the midst of a slop fight. In other cast news Sal Landi, who has been in plenty of movies reviewed on this site, here plays "Zim" Zimmerman, also predating a certain news story. And fan favorite George "Buck" Flower even finds time to stop by in the midst of all the craziness. Tying it all together is Scalia, who looks like a stone statue carved of Treat Williams.

In the end, this movie is at war with itself. It's sci-fi sloggery vs. tried-and-true action. If you don't mind your action punctuated by literally dark, boring scenes (or if you genuinely like sci-fi, which is also a possibility), you might be able to extract some enjoyment from Dark Breed.

Stinker

[don-mercer · 1/10 · 17 June 2007]

Can't believe these actors signed on for this. Guy wearing an Air Force full service uniform shooting a bazooka...I think not. Not to mention the bazooka is a 2-man weapon....Story points are not made clear; e.g., why the possessed astronauts are standing in the middle of the road, waiting for a truck that's hauling a mobile home. Maybe they were just waiting for someone to stop, I don't know. These were good, reputable actors, relegated to a movie that relied on stunts and special effects instead of telling a story. The basic premise is fine, but there's only so far that suspension of belief will go, and this movie requires you to go way beyond it. Could it have been done better? I think so. Use the same actors, get a better writer, and you might have a decent movie.

Cheesy Sci-Fi Action with Amazing Stunts!

[Movie-Misfit · 6/10 · 19 November 2014]

Some people take films far too seriously!

Like most reviewers or critics for this, Dark Breed.

I picked this up for just a pound and highly enjoyed what I got for it. Action packed from the get-go, Dark Breed is a sci-fi rip off from many Hollywood blockbusters, but it doesn't care, because it's got just as much action, if not more, complete with some incredible stunt work from everyone involved!

Jack Scalia is just great. He isn't a bad actor, he just seems to have gotten trapped in B-movie hell, yet never fails to deliver.

His role in Dark Breed is probably one of his best, and he pulls off the action hero greatly!

Far from perfect, but highly entertaining if you remember not to take it all so seriously. Action fans should definitely check it out, as I feel its being sold more as a sci-fi movie than anything else, yet features some amazing stunt work that deserves to be seen!!

Brainless Terminator-Alien action-science-fiction packed, hold in the chair!!

[elo-equipamentos · 4/10 · 18 August 2023]

As I'm an eager Sci-Fi fan I used to buy every single DVD in this special genre, even if the picture had a bad reputation like Dark Breed a kind of unabashed Terminator alien mimicry, to worsen this weirdo offer has an unbelievable plot, countless blasting, gooey and primitive especial effects.

Aquarius 7 is a Nasa's Project something similar Columbia in outer space, it sudden coming back with the almost whole crew infected by invaders aliens self-called accursed race, except by a superior alien protector embodies in Aquarius's female member Burgess (Cindy Ambuehl) former wife of the Captain Nicholas Saxon (Jack Scalia) who is in charge of rescue the Aquarius 7's crew that landing in a harbor area.

His old friend Joseph Shay (Jonathan Banks) the commander and other five members are tainted by alien organism inside their bodies in process of development, the Nasa commander Cutter (Lance LeGault) demands catch the parasite-hosts in order to study them, the alien invaders put the eggs on the Aquarius 7's capsule that will incubates the eggs in 39 hours, spreading news alien to take over the whole planet, they must find out it and destroy and the time is running out.

It's a shameless hybrid facsimile of Terminator-Alien and others related Sci-Fi pictures, also overdone blasting, myriad machine gun fire, street chases in iron parabolic antenna that in contact with asphalt did not lets out a single spark, slime alien as usually done by others movies, whoever wrote the script certainly was drunk or had smoke mari-juana, anyway a farfetched entry.

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 4.5.

A fun sci-fi/action/horror hybrid outing

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 4 January 2009]

A group of astronauts led by Joseph Shay (a nicely villainous portrayal by the always reliable Jonathan Banks) return from a failed space mission infected by lethal evil alien parasites that plan on destroying the human race. It's up to rugged Captain Nick Saxon (a solid and credible performance by Jack Scalia) to stop them before it's too late. Capably directed with considerable rip-roaring gusto by Richard Pepin, with a constant swift pace, a compact script by Richard Preston, Jr., several exciting well-staged action set pieces (the wild and explosive outbursts of vehicular carnage are especially stirring and impressive), fluid, agile cinematography by Ken Blakey, a few effectively gross moments of grisly splatter, engaging and well-developed main characters, a shuddery, rattling, rousing score by Louis Febre, and gnarly reptilian extraterrestrial monsters, this handy dandy multi-genre combo romp rates as a perfectly enjoyable and unpretentious serving of low-budget straight-to-video entertainment. The sturdy acting from a bang-up cast qualifies as another substantial asset: Scalia brings some depth and humanity to his tough guy part, Lance LeGault is his usual pleasingly nasty self as hard-nosed military bigwig Cutter, plus there's cool supporting turns by Felton Perry and Sal Landi as two of the infected astronauts, Robin Curtis as compassionate physician Marian, fetching blonde Donna W. Scott as Saxon's spunky ex-wife Deborah, Billy Maddox as Cutter's mean right-hand man North, Carlos Carrasco as the shrewd, likable Fox, Cindy Ambuehl as the feisty Burgess, and the ubiquitous George "Buck" Flower in one of his standard grubby old bum roles. A neat little flick.

Derivative but decent

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 30 September 2017]

DARK BREED is another hit from the team at PM Entertainment, who seemed to put out minor gem after minor gem in the years 1996 to 1997. This one's a heavily derivative science fiction thriller in which a team of astronauts are infected by alien organisms which turn them into ruthless killers. Only B-movie favourite Jack Scalia can stop them, aided by a female alien on his side.

Sure, this is a film that blatantly copies bits from ALIEN, ALIENS, and THE TERMINATOR, but that doesn't stop it being a decent piece of entertainment. It's very fast-paced, for a start, and very violent, with all manner of gruesome death scenes taking place throughout. The trademark PM vehicle chases and crashes are present and correct, and a strong cast does well with the material too. Even the early CGI effects aren't bad. Watch out for ROBOCOP's Felton Perry as one of the infected, George 'Buck' Flower as a tramp, and UNDER SIEGE 2's Jonathan Banks as the chief villain.

Another Awesome Sci-fi Action Thriller B-movie Blast From Jack Scalia!!!

[lukem-52760 · 8/10 · 10 March 2023]

I've loved Jack Scalia's Trilogy of exciting PM Entertainment Sci-fi B-movies that include: T-Force, The Silencers & Dark Breed.

Jack Scalia is near perfect leading man for the fun & fantasy worlds of B-movies, with his good looks, rugged voice & no-nonsense attitude he suits the material he does. Scalia produced these movies too which tells me he likes what he's doing & so do i.

T-Force was Awesome & an easy 8/10 & The Silencers was also Awesome & an easy 8/10 & equally Awesome was Dark Breed, another 8/10 for B-movie goodness. These movies are perfect video era releases that are full of fun, action, excitement & lots of cool stuff.

Here the slickly cool Jack Scalia plays Nick Saxon, a special government agent that gets called into action when a space shuttle returns to Earth carrying a team of infected astronauts, including Bad guy regular Jonathan Banks as Joseph Shay a friend of Nicks & also on board was Nick's ex-wife. The space shuttle is called Aquarius 7 & was on a top secret mission but ended up becoming a vessel for Extraterrestrials that have taken over their human hosts & are now in Los Angeles. There's a nice sense of the X-Files here with a dash of 90's Sci-fi Thriller elements scattered throughout like Species & Predator & Predator 2 & many more that come to mind whilst watching it. Jack Scalia is cool once again as the tough agent trying to track down & stop his old buddy & his team of infected creatures.

There's a fantastic action-packed sequence set on a freeway at night that is just explosive action & excitement & i loved how Dark Breed is set mostly at night that gives the film a nice dark atmosphere that's full of that pure 90's cinematography that's blueish light & dark shadows & is very suited & effective here.

The special effects are damn good for a 90's Low-budget DTV movie & the creature design is pretty awesome & reminded me a little of The Predator, but still different enough to stand out as a cool movie monster in it's own right.

I liked the dark, wet & grubby urban setting of the docks & an old warehouses where nearly all the action takes place because the infected Astronauts are hiding out down there & i loved the pure old fashioned B-movie feel of the film complete with a nice 1950's love song used alot that gives the film a B-movie homage feel (like the cult classic Night of the Creeps) & even when the shuttle comes crashing down to earth it passes overhead a young couple kissing in a roofless car parked on the docks near the river & it was a perfect 50's B-movie setup & homage. Dark Breed is full of Conspiracy & monstrous killers & explosive action set pieces that keep it moving along nicely.

I loved Dark Breed & Jack Scalia & his other two films!!!

If you love B-movies & the fun type of flicks that you would find on the video store shelves of the VHS era then you will like Dark Breed.

Another decent job by director Richard Pepin again!!!

A cheesy good time

[slayrrr666 · 8/10 · 18 June 2007]

"Dark Breed" is a middle-of-the-road creature feature.

**SPOILERS**

Upon returning to Earth early, the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Aquarius, Joseph Shay, (Jonathan Banks) Zimmerman, (Sal Landi) Rice, (Josh Clark) Jackson, (Leon W. Grant) Powell, (Felton Perry) and Deborah Saxon, (Donna W. Scott) are feared to be infected and manage to escape. Ordered to find them and bring them back, officers Nick Saxon, (Jack Scalia) Lt. Burgess, (Cindy Ambuehl) and Fox, (Carlos Carrasco) go out to search and begin to track them down. After managing to find several of them, they soon discover that the aliens have a spy amongst them to divert them away from their target. That leads them to learn of an alien parasite that has infested the astronauts to take over the planet for their own race of beings, and they race against time to stop their diabolical plan to eliminate the planet.

The Good News: This was a pretty surprisingly good film. One of it's best features is it's action-packed narrative. It plays out much more like an action film than it really should. This is mostly evident in the beginning, where it features several really impressive action stunts. The truck's charge through the exploding battlefield is a pretty good scene, and the highway sequence is nothing shot of brilliant. From the acquisition of the vehicles to the brawl through the trailer and the ensuing chases, this is a great scene that does a whole lot right. That it concludes with a spectacular car crash and explosion is a lot better. The gunfight at the motel is also pretty good, and there's a really great hospital massacre scene gets some great moments in. There's also the film's highlight, the final confrontation in the alien's headquarters. The massive structure, the creepy interior and the fantastic way of lighting the entire area makes it a lot more suspenseful and give it an eerie look to it. The action in the scene is quite intense and gets some great mileage out of it. Along with other action scenes spread throughout the film, they make the film seem incredibly fast-paced and manages to stay entertaining quite easily, a great feat for a simple creature feature. The pretty high body count also works for the film's favor, giving it lots of kills and some great gore. There's a plethora of gunshots, a broken neck, several bashed against the surroundings, along with more graphic ones including having a hand punched through the stomach and coming out the back, being ripped apart from a creature underneath the skin, a special device tearing a victim to pieces and more, leaving this one pretty bloody. There's also a really graphic autopsy to add, along with all the non-fatal wounds acquired during the fights. These here make this a really entertaining creature feature.

The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot here that doesn't work. The main one is the aliens themselves. They're rarely on-screen, and the few times they are on make them look incredibly fake. The appearance is way too rubbery and covered with obviously fake goo that just makes them look like any generic alien out there. The fact that they transform in two of the single cheesiest-looking scenes ever doesn't do any favors, looking like third-rate bloopers for any creature feature made. Making them look even cheesier is that in human form they simply decide to make their eyes yellow-ish, cat-like eyes and it takes all their suspense away when they look like that. Also not helping is that the film is really clichéd and plays out like any normal film in this genre. It's quite easy to see where everything's going from the very beginning, giving it no real surprises to play on. These make it a little less than perfect, though it's still quite good.

The Final Verdict: Though this one did have some problems, all-together this was a nicely action-packed film that does manage to entertain. This one's mostly for the lovers of cheesy creature features or of the more action-packed variety, though those of more serious fare seek caution.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity