ALIEN 2 (1980)
aka Alien 2 sulla Terra, Strangers
Article 5152 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-10-2016
Directed by Ciro Ippolito and Biagio Proietti
Featuring Belinda Mayne, Mark Bodin, Roberto Barrese
Country: Italy
What it is: Not a sequel, but owes a bit to the original

A space capsule brings living rocks to Earth, where they inhabit human bodies and cause them to explode. Can a telepathic woman do battle with them while spelunking?

Reportedly, 20th Century Fox wanted to sue the makers of this film for using “Alien” in the title, but they lost the case because it was found that a novel from the thirties also had the title “Alien”. Not that anyone is likely to mistake this low-budget Italian movie for a real sequel to the original; the musical score during the opening credits convinced me this movie wasn’t even in the same universe. This is not to say that the movie wasn’t inspired by ALIEN, but all it’s really interested in imitating is the use of gory “aliens-bursting-out-of-human-bodies” special effects, only having them burst out of the head rather than the chest, not because it makes more sense, but because it’s grosser. Those choosing to wend their way through this movie will have to endure quite a bit of shaky camerawork and dead time before the gory effects manifest themselves; most of the movie consists of hanging around with a bunch of young adults in a cave. The movie generates very little suspense, despite the best efforts of a musical score to make it seem gripping. The ending is no better than the rest of the movie. I am left with one question, though; why, at the end of the movie, is the machinery in the bowling alley going gangbusters at setting up pins and delivering bowling balls when the place is deserted?