Shadowzone

Shadowzone

Shadowzone

Shadowzone

This movie is so slow it could put a hyperactive gerbil on speed into a coma. It starts slowly, slow burns through the middle, and ends on a decidedly low key note. You could call it 'atmospheric', but I'd probably go for 'snoozefest..'. It's not terribly made, and it's not an embarrassing clunker that anyone involved should be ashamed of, but it just fails to excite or entertain on any level. If you're looking for some so-bad-it's-good oldskool sci-fi cheese then look elsewhere. OK I need 10 lines of text. How about that clumsy tag line, then: "In Alien no one could hear you scream. In the Shadowzone that's all you can hear" a more accurate tag line would be: "In the Shadowzone nothing much really happens, and then it just randomly ends"

Sleep inducing movie ironically about dream therapy and experiments. One of the few Full Moon releases to feature a selection of real animals including a cute monkey. Louise Fletcher is an older doctor, ex Baywatch star Shawn Weatherly (she was eaten by a Shark in Baywatch as her breasts weren't big enough or something!) is a young doctor and various men including David Beecroft (as Nasa captain) and James Hong is a male doctor. That is it really, they hang out in a science laboratory where attractive blonde Maureen Flaherty lies completely naked in a sealed dome. Beecroft is sent to investigate the 'Shadowzone' project as someone has been killed. Director J.S. Cardone in one of his two Full Moon outings (the other 'Crash and Burn') has always preferred TV movie style sex and nudity to actual proper storytelling and though this is potentially a strong science fiction tale he manages to make it as bland as perhaps only he could. Watchable thanks largely to the fine cast, but truly average.

Late night TV as a kid, I would stay up in the hopes of coming across something so outrageously fun, or trashy, and that's how I initially came across this Full Moon production. This and "CRASH AND BURN" seemed to be on a loop every couple of months, becoming a staple of my late-night TV habits. Actually it's been quite awhile since I've last watched "SHADOWZONE", maybe around 15 years. My memory was rather fuzzy, but watching this little b-film again, after all these years. It remained a diverting, down-pat viewing. Mainly it reminded me of those plethora cheap Alien rip-offs, and boy, this film lifts some set-ups from "ALIEN". I must admit, it wasn't as exciting as I remembered; nonetheless it was actually efficiently made by J.S Cardone, for such a limited looking production. When it's not simply splashing blood against walls as the victims get attacked for most part off-screen, there are a few effective moments of suitably grotesque make-up FX and a touch of splatter. You can't fail with a head explosion. Even the creature design, and we do get a good look at it, provides solid enough practical effects despite the stiff movements. The script's theory behind its origin, structural metabolism and how it adapts to survive is rather creative, yet it's hodgepodge, as the science behind all of this commotion is nonsensical and poorly expanded on, sometimes even stalling and taking away from the simple-minded fun. The mystery of what's going on in this underground facility slowly builds up to the danger that will unfold. Now that's when stupidity comes into play, to keep the story moving and to cause some deaths. Don't you just love it when our heroine needs something to destroy the computers, so he heads out the corridor to find an emergency axe in a glass case. Um, just wait a minute -- It's been there all this time, untouched, no one thought of using it when you got a hostile creature from a parallel dimension lurking about. Things don't start off that seriously though, with the script providing moments of morbid humor, but once the creature hits the scene, that changes and the cheap, tight surroundings gets claustrophobic trapping the occupants inside. The turning point is when James Hong (who was appearing in nearly everything that was low-budget horror related in the late 80s to early 90s) decides to get himself knocked off. I was disappointed by that, but Louise Fletcher, Miguel A. Nunez Jr and Cardone regular Frederick Flynn do make something of their characters, even providing quirky shades, as our heroine played by David Beecroft, whose character is sent there by NASA to investigate the death of one the researchers' subjects, had all the personality of a wooden plank.

I had watched this fullmoon picture about 10 years back and thought that it was just a substandard Alien clone. I was trawling the cheapo shops and saw it cheap so I thought what the hell I will give it another shot. First shock was that it was written and directed by JS Cardone of Forsaken and Slayer fame. He can be really good when he gets it right. The plot. In a underground bunker experiments are taking place, unfortunately there has been an accident and one of the test subjects has died. So an investigation has to take place. When it is instigated the sleeping person opens a doorway to another dimension. This plot is pure From Beyond without the style of the aforementioned movie. Something comes through the doorway and comes into this world. We then get treated to Alien meets Galaxy of terror. Where is the alien? People go searching and get blotted. Conclusion Its cheap, its nasty and I quite enjoyed it. It was worth the £2 I paid for it. Top marks for the nudity and the little bits of gore. 5/10 for the rest of the movie.

My review was written in March 1990 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette. One of the better Charles Band fantasy pics in some time, "Shadowzone" is a suspenseful thriller that has better-than-average home video prospects in its Paramount video release. The film had a bief theatrical run on 42nd Street in January from JGM Enterprises. Pic unfolds in the nailbiter tradition of Robert Wise's "The Andromeda Strain". James Hong and Louise Fletcher are scientists in a secret lab underground. David Beecroft visits as a NASA investigator following a mysterious death there. With assistants Shawn Weatherly and Miguel Nunez, the scientists are conducting deep sleep experiments. Things go haywire when a monster from another dimension is called up accidentally. It only wants to return home, but wreaks havoc anyway. Helmer J. S. Cardone does a solid job of maintaining tension while paying homages to such film classics as "The Thing". Cast is very good, with Hong getting a non-stereotyped assignment (as Dr. Von Fleet0 with a Germanic accent, no less. As the * experimental subject in a coma, Maureen Flaherty has minimal diaglo but makes quite an impression on screen.

The first thing you need to know about 'Shadowzone' is that it's a blatant rip-off of a dozen other films from the same sci-fi/horror genre. The first that comes to mind is 'Alien,' but there are elements of plenty others in there, too. It doesn't have much of a budget, which is a shame because there is a decent idea buried somewhere in it. What lets it down is that there isn't enough invested in the characters. Every one is a total stereotype and you know who'll be monster-fodder and who's going to make it from the word go. It's about an investigator who does to a top secret military base to investigate the death of a worker. Once there, he finds the scientists are dabbling in doorways to other dimensions (never a recipe for 'happily ever after'). Then, we have a monster who - remains relatively unseen - as it bumps them off, one by one. The acting isn't great, the special effects are stretched and what tension is pretty much directly lifted from Alien (check out the 'motion tracker' type scene which is almost totally taken from the scene in Alien where Ripley observes Dallas while he treks through the vents, plus the music which sounds almost identical). It's not the worst 'monster-munching' movie out there. There are some nice moments here and there, but the overall vibe of 'seen it all before' outweighs what little good is there.

~Spoiler~ Shadowzone is one of Joe Cardone's early features and one of the better Full Moon films. From the production end, it's about what you expect from Full Moon. The film was produced by Charles Band and Richard Band did the music. What's really exceptional about it is the cast. Louise Fletcher, James Hong, and Miquel Nunez really bring the project above the usual fair. And the lead, David Beecroft, isn't bad either. The film is about something coming in from another dimension and preying on our worst fears. Think From Beyond with a touch of Dreamscape and a whole lot of Alien. Don't put too much logic in the scientifics of the plot. Thankfully they don't get too deep in the jargon because most of what they say doesn't make sense to me. But if you're watching this you're here to be entertained, not educated. And Shadowzone is pretty entertaining. Enough so to warrant a rental. But be warned if you're thinking about purchasing the film: the DVD says widescreen and it absolutely is not.