When you think of the term, cult movie or "B-movie", a handful of names might come into your mind. Perhaps Ed Wood, Roger Corman, or maybe no one at all. For me though, when I think of a person relating to cult films, Bruce Campbell always comes into my head and this film is no exception. 40 years after a probe mission in space, a crew of astronauts return to Earth to discover that the planet has been taken over by termite-like aliens who have enslaved the human race and use them to harvest wood. When one of the astronauts, Dr. Ivan Hood manages to escape his newfound prison, he must locate the former president of the U.S.A as rumours keep spreading that he has been training an army for the past couple decades in hopes to rise up against the aliens and to save his girlfriend who has also been captured. The story is ripping off films such as "Planet of the Apes" and "Spartacus", but it manages to solidify the world that it has created that it honestly manages to have its own identity, despite its crystal clear inspirations. Besides, with a title like "Alien Apocalypse", it's quite clear that you are not meant to really take the story seriously. The pacing for the less than 90 minute runtime though is much slower than I expected. While the story is constantly moving, there are plenty of scenes where Ivan is just learning about the world, the people or talking about himself to others. It's not crazy action or antics the entire time, which I didn't disappoint me. The tone reflects the goofy title as the film itself can be so amateur that it's hard to not laugh, even in some serious scenes. However, there was a scene where a women gets raped that's taken so seriously only for said rapist to get killed off with a hilarious one-liner. The scene didn't need to be there as it not only added anything to the story, but it's such a dark scene that comes out of nowhere in such a goofy movie.
Bruce Campbell as Ivan is as basic of a Bruce Campbell role as you can get, which means that it's amazing. I was worried at first since he didn't seem to be entertaining in the first act when he and his girlfriend are captured into the sawmill camp, but as soon as he manages to escape, Campbell gets really comfortable in the role and plays it as straight and charismatic as he can. I also genuinely love how Ivan is integrated as the leader of the resistance due to his occupation as a doctor, which the world lacks of. Although it can get repetitive, I do like seeing Ivan heal the people around him and have them join into his own little army. It also helps that Campbell is really the only legitimate talent the film has. Renee O'Connor plays Lt. Kelly Lanaman, the love interest of Hood and the only other surviving astronaut in the group. There's really not much to say about Kelly, considering that she vanishes during the second act. For having a military rank though, she doesn't really try to fight much at all and just ends up being a damsel in distress that Ivan has to save. The last character with a somewhat recognizable actor attached to is Peter Jason as President Demsky, the former president of the U.S.A and a man who cowardly hides with other former government officials in the mountains. Jason is probably the second best actor in the movie, but that's just because Jason is the only other competent actor in the film. As for the side characters, there's the two astronauts who die in the first ten minutes, the human bounty hunters who acts as enforcers for the aliens, the various men who join Ivan either due to their desire of freedom or because Ivan healed them of their issues, and the one attractive women in the group who is the subject of rape in the aforementioned scene and a product of desire for the various men that isn't Ivan. All of the side characters, aside from the astronauts, are Bulgarian and their acting is clearly comprised of ADR. To be fair, the dubbing did fool me for a little while as the dialogue did fit with the syncing of the mouths, but it just adds on to the "B-movie" charm that the film is going for. I will discuss the aliens themselves when I talk about the effects, but aside of Campbell and Jason, the acting and characters are either borderline generic or hilariously dubbed to hell.
Josh Becker, a friend of Campbell, directs the made-to-TV film and considering his extended background in TV shows, it's about as good as you can get... which is not saying much at all. The movie takes place in Oregon, which is really just Bulgaria. There are only two environments in the movie. The desert-looking valley that is shown in two scenes and the forest. The forest in particular doesn't makes sense as the aliens are supposed to be harvesting wood for the past 20 years and yet there's still a nature park's worth of it in the entire film. The sets regarding the sawmill, underground prison, "Freedom Town", and the President's mountain bunker are actually well designed and modelled for a film that doesn't care about how lazy it can be. The cinematography by David Worth is worth very little. The shots are standard at best, flat at worst. There are a few long-takes though that are decent. The score by Joseph LoDuca isn't memorable per se, but for this type of movie, it's actually pretty good as it contains a variety of themes that fit the genre and feel. What's not good is the audio mixing. Not only is the music louder than the dialogue, but anyone who isn't Campbell sound like they spoke out of a soda can. If you thought "Tenet" has poor audio-mixing, you haven't heard this movie at all to judge! The editing by Shawn Paper is both charmingly good and bad. For the commercial break moments, it edits out at some decent moments. However, you can tell that a lot of scenes got left out in the editing room. How can I know this? Because ten or more people join Ivan offscreen during his journey to the president! Like, if the movie were any longer, Ivan would have gotten a country's worth of an army before the climax! The aliens themselves are mainly comprised of CGI that look like top-end Nintendo 64 graphics. Their designs are basically giant green termites that have a secondary mouth they use to bite people's heads off. The only thing I like about the aliens is that they are so incompetent during the action scenes. All they do is stiffly look around as they get pelted by arrows. Speaking of the action, the climax is laughably done due to how repetitive and bizarre it can be. The resistance apparently only has access to bow and arrows and swords, despite the use of rifles throughout the entire film prior. The aliens only manage to kill people by blowing up wood piles to squash whoever is unfortunate to be there. The amount of aliens in the area is never explained as by the end, an entire army shows up despite only being one tank. The one tank the aliens use decimates the resistance akin to that one moment in "Avengers: Endgame" where the only threat to the heroes was the one vehicle that the aliens had in their disposal. Ivan uses a sword to slash offscreen aliens to insert shots where swords go into prosthetic bodies, and the issues pile on and on. To be honest though, the issues found are more enjoyable and perhaps the better option Becker can go with. In general, the film isn't well made, but it's just so fun watching all of these fumbles after another.
"Alien Apocalypse" is a what you see, what you get movie. If you're seeking an entertaining "B-movie", you've found what you're looking for. There are issues galore to be found from an unneeded rape scene, large cast of side characters that are forgettable and dubbed to hell, the two environmental backdrops don't match at all in the context of the film, Worth's cinematography is for the most part amateur, the audio mixing is horrendous, Paper's editing has the worst continuity error of all time by the abundance of allies Ivan suddenly has in his crusade, the aliens are generic insect-based and look like they came from a video game, and the climax is stuffed with so many issues that it speaks for the film by itself. However, not only was this expected, but I found a lot of enjoyment and even some qualities to the film. The story and pacing is solid despite the whole rip-off nature to it, the tone is for the most part unapologetically silly, Campbell as Ivan is not only fun to watch, but also serves as a pretty solid character in his resume, the set design for the various locations and interiors are actually really good given the cheap production and lazy mentality, the score by LoDuca is surprisingly decent for the film it's attached to, and the directing and filmmaking management by Becker is so poorly overlooked that you can't help but love seeing the countless mistakes. It's a so bad, it's good type of movie that actually manages to outshine big-budget movies not only out of entertainment, but even by quality at times. I'm not going to lie, I would rather watch this over a movie like "Don't Breathe" or "The Predator" any day of the week.
Verdict: 5.5/10. A broken mess quality-wise. An enjoyable soon-to-be cult classic entertainment-wise.
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