What I love about Television is the Mini Series, why? because ever since the first time I saw Stephen King's epic 6 hour version of The Stand i've been hooked. There are some incredibly poor ones such as Robin Cook's Invasion and some epically awesome ones like The Triangle (ok this is a personal fave) but my main man in the U.S just got hooked up with this 1992 mini series called Intruders and he seemed to love it. Find out why after the jump...
Written By Shawn Francis
In Nebraska, in the
middle of the night a woman, barefoot and only clothed in her
nightgown walks down a country road and bursts into a diner,
confused, unable to remember her name or where she lives. On the way
to the local hospital, she suddenly remembers who she is and where
she lives, which is 30 miles from her current location. She persuades
the cop who’s driving her to take her home instead.
Hundreds
of miles away, in Los Angeles, a woman’s sleep is disturbed by
commotion outside her window. She sees a white panel truck and
several men dressed in coveralls and caps getting out. Irate, she
places a call to the phone company asking what the hell are their
employees doing out so late and making enough racket to wake the
dead. Back at the window, she observes menacing behavior from the
men as the all stare at her in unison. She freaks out, runs to lock
the door, cowers in her living room, fearing for her life.
What
do these two women have in common?
Two
things—they’re both life long victims of alien abductions, and
Dr. Neil Chase (Richard Crenna), who gets pulled into these
“extraterrestrial nappings” when he takes on new patient, Lesley
Hahn (Daphne Ashbrook), who reveals under hypnotic regression, that
those “phone repair men” got into her apartment by phasing
through the very walls.
When
Mary Wilkes (Mare Winngham) comes to LA to visit her sister, she ends
up in Chase’s care, too, and revealing equally extraordinary events
under the same hypnotic regression. Chase starts off a non-believer
but the more he talks with the women, and a patient he’s been
treating for some time in his group at the hospital, an ex-military
officer played by Ben Vareen, who found some dead aliens in a ship
that crashed near where he was stationed many years before, he slowly
accepts the fact that little grey men are here on earth, and
experimenting on certain humans. Even going so far as to impregnate
them and take the fetuses before they reach full term, a horrifying
even Lesley endures and one Mary endured years before.
This
was a mini-series directed by DARK SHADOWS creator, Dan
Curtis, based on a book by UFO expert, Budd Hopkins, which aired in
two parts in 1992. I have no memory of ever having seen it. I could
have and just couldn’t recall it, but as I watched it none of was
familiar. It’s a very engrossing 2 hours and 41 minutes, and very
well acted by everyone including the two main actresses. I found some
of the emotional turmoil from their regression scenes hard to watch,
for their fear and terror was very realistically conveyed. I also
found it to be creepy, until the “uplifting” reveal of the
alien’s true agenda at the end that is.
During
the course of that night’s viewing I remembered something my mother
told me once, when I was young, about my grandparents, her
parents, that they were driving one night, saw a strange object in
the sky and when they got home they couldn’t account for some
missing time.
Apparently,
this has never been available here in the States on legit DVD. The UK
had it for a while on mass market disc, but it has since gone out of
print over there. CBS Entertainment has released it as an MOD, here,
in the U.S, last month, and has assembled it so it plays like one
long movie rather than breaking it up into the two parts it
originally aired as decades ago. The full frame transfer is good,
with three odd moments where people move in slow motion. It only
lasts for an instant and I can’t tell if it’s a problem with the
transfer or a creative choice made by the filmmakers. There’s also
a scene where a boom mike comes briefly into view.
For
all those who love alien abduction movies (i.e. FIRE IN THE SKY,
COMMUNION) this one ranks up there as one of the best I have
seen, and most unnerving. The effects for the aliens are also some of
the best I have ever seen, being practical all the way.
Highly
recommended!
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