Category Archives: aliens

31 Days of Horror: Devil’s Gate (NR; 2017; 94 min.)

Another day, another dud. Set in the aptly-named Devil’s Gate, a rural farming town in North Dakota, an FBI agent works with a local lawman to track down a missing woman and her son. Thinking the woman’s husband (the always amazing Milo Ventimiglia, my sole reason for sticking around during the movie’s latter half) in his dilapidated farmhouse is off his rocker and possibly involved in the disappearances, “the law” tries to take him into custody. But they soon discover the creature that lurks in his basement is really to blame.

As the movie turns into something entirely different in its second half, filled with lots of Stephen King-style supernatural elements, what started as a somewhat promising horror film devolves into a War of the Worlds-themed, lightening-filled religious story focusing on one family’s history and final struggle to reunite.

  • Top Scare: Occurs in first five minutes
  • Heartbeats: 2 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 3 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 2 1/2 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 15 and up

31 Days of Horror: The Thing (R; 1982; 109 min.)

the thing

Directed by John Carpenter, The Thing is everything you could want in a classic horror movie: isolated location, an unknown entity, gore galore (amazing special effects before their time!), and a nice escalation leading to a very suspenseful ending. Of course it also trots out some classic horror movie tropes, but with Kurt Russell in the lead, you know it will all be okay.

Set during the winter in Antarctica at a U.S. research station, the small group of men working there are trying to figure out why a Norwegian helicopter crashed and burned near their base. After looking further and discovering at the nearby Norwegian base that everyone is missing or dead, they also discover an alien being they believe to be the culprit. So of course, in classic horror-movie hubris, they take it back to their base. And surprise…it doesn’t like them either! As the alien secretly invades their bodies one by one, they turn on one another, finally devising a plan to escape The Thing before it destroys them all!

  • Top Scare: Too many to pick (all involve alien)
  • Heartbeats: 4 out of 5
  • Gore Factor: 5 out of 5
  • Suspense Factor: 4 out of 5
  • Recommended for: 17 and up, due to extreme gore