It’s quite common among critics both amateur and professional to invoke Ed Wood in discussions about bad movies. Wood is an easy and, frankly, quite lazy touchstone (much like David Lynch is always being name-dropped in weird movie discussions), but on occasion the connection makes sense. One such example is XTRO (1982), a British made horror fest that was financed in part by New Line Cinema’s Robert Shaye, who made his presence known on a film project that, in true Ed Woodian fashion, exists as a hodgepodge of disparate ideas packed into a loosely knit narrative that makes little sense.
XTRO (1982) Trailer
According to director Harry Bromley Davenport, “The idea of the film was to do the most disgusting things we could possibly get away with.” Logic and plausibility weren’t taken into consideration, with Shaye’s input further muddying XTRO’s narrative waters (the completely incongruous black panther that turns up in the third act was apparently Shaye’s idea).
The confusing opening scene offers a good indication of what we’re in for, with a man throwing a dog’s bone into the air and, in a clumsy riff on an iconic scene from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), day changes to night, the weather turns windy and a bright something is seen on the horizon.
The above turns out to be a dream, as the “reality” commences with a flying saucer disgorging an alien critter in a forest. It attacks, and impregnates, a woman living nearby, who subsequently gives birth to a full-grown man: Sam (Philip Sayer), a fellow who disappeared three years earlier. The rebirthed Sam tries to get back together with his wife Rachel (Bernice Stegers), who in the three years since his disappearance has shacked up with the hunky fashion photographer Joe (Danny Brainin); only Sam’s young son Tony (Simon Nash) warms up to him.
But then Tony sees his dad ecstatically devouring snake egg yolk and freaks out. Sam responds by biting his son and drinking his blood, which gives the boy powers that according to Sam work like this: “If you think hard about something, you can make it happen.” Tony does just that, conjuring into existence human-sized replicas of a commando action figure (identified in the end credits as “Tok”) and a clown, which of course take to stabbing, bludgeoning, shooting and even cocooning every human in their midst. The flying saucer seen at the beginning of the film also reappears (along with the aforementioned panther) in a conclusion I found quite murky.
The film, Ed Woodian though it is, isn’t badly made. Harry Bromley Davenport proves a competent helmer, deftly handling the mounting suspense and crafting some tremendous gross-out set pieces (although Davenport’s self-composed electronic score is distracting). He clearly didn’t worry much about making sense of a narrative that foreshadowed the dreamy illogic of producer Robert Shaye’s forthcoming NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films, with the special effects taking center stage.
The effects supervisor Tom Harris and creature effects creator Francis Coates can be identified as XTRO’s true stars. Their work, pulled off on a limited budget, ranges from striking to ingenious, as in a scene in which bloodsucking is depicted by distended blue veins in a woman’s skin that gradually turn pink. There’s also plenty of abject silliness, such as a bludgeoning with a bent hammer and a skeletal space creature with a hinged jaw (its only moving part), which may or may not have been intentional. Such transcendent stupidity is quite befitting of Ed Wood, who’d likely be proud.
Vital Statistics
XTRO
Amalgamated Film Enterprises Ltd./New Line Cinema
Director: Harry Bromley Davenport
Producer: Mark Forstater
Screenplay: Iain Cassie, Robert Smith
Cinematography: John Metcalfe
Editing: Nicolas Gaster
Cast: Philip Sayer, Bernice Stegers, Danny Brainin, Maryam D’Abo, Simon Nash, Peter Mandell, David Cardy, Anna Wing, Robert Fyfe, Katherine Best, Robert Pereno, Susie Silvey, Arthur Whybrow, Anna Mottram, Robert Austin, Vanya Seager