Lancoor
A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
soulexpress
In this low-budget ANDROMEDA STRAIN rip-off, an unknown, and potentially lethal, microorganism is accidentally set loose aboard the freight train that's carrying it through rural Wisconsin. As a result, the five people involved are quarantined at the nearest railroad depot. There's Dr. Sorenson (Stafford Smith), a biochemist who, for some reason, was the only person guarding the virus during its train ride; Hank (Buck Flower), a hayseed railroad worker whose tenacious curiosity led to the exposure of the virus; Jack (John Goff), a brash railroad laborer who resents being held at the depot; Charlie (Ralph Meeker), a meek, pencil-pushing railroad clerk; and Jenny (Carol Irene Newell), his bookkeeper.Though classified as a sci-fi movie, THE ALPHA INCIDENT really is not one. Most of it plays out in the railroad depot and features the characters bickering. The five are unique from each other, but not terribly interesting. By the halfway mark, Charlie has pretty much disappeared. He's still there but melds with the background and barely says a word. Why did Meeker get top billing when he clearly did not play the main character? It's not like anybody would say, "Gosh, Ralph Meeker's in this film! I have to see it now."Jenny is supposed to be this classy seductress but comes across as frumpy. When she changes clothes and emerges in a V-neck dress and high heels, she exudes the provocativeness of a little girl playing dress-up. Jack is a petulant child who yells when he doesn't get his way. Hank is the ostensible comic relief, but his bumbling manner suggests an acquired brain injury. And Sorenson handles his leadership role with the aplomb of M*A*S*H's Henry Blake.A skilled director would have built up the tension to an excruciating level, but not here. Ultimately, director Bill Rebane does far too little with an interesting (if unoriginal) premise. THE ALPHA INCIDENT suffers from a weak script, spartan sets, uninspired acting, shoddy production values, and characters about whom one simply does not give a damn. It has a few good moments, but there's too much mediocrity in between.
SukkaPunch
Let's pretend it's the 1970s again. You hop in your AMC Pacer and head down to the local drive in to catch the evening's double feature. It's a hot summer night, you're there with some friends and the opening movie comes on. The first film that is to play is a horror title called, "The Alpha Incident." After viewing it in a contemporary lens, without any knowledge of some of the negative perceptions that have surrounded this low budget film, I'd dare say you'd say you enjoyed it. I truly believe that this film deserves a higher rating then the 3.8 it has garnered on IMDb. The plot is fairly original and complex: A government agent on a railway line is posing as a conductor in order to ensure that a deadly virus from Mars is transported safely across the country. On the way to their destination a nosy railway employee accidentally breaks open the virus. Unknown to him, he is now infected, and everyone he comes into contact with could potentially have the virus spread to them. The next morning at a remote north woods railway stop, the government agent realizes that the container has been broken into and that the virus could have been spread to him and three others who are at the stop. The agent calls the incident in, and is ordered by his superiors to quarantine himself and any others who may have been exposed.For what the film lacks in action, it makes up for in suspense. Tempers flair and emotions run high as the five people are stuck together waiting for the government to find a some sort of solution to the problem. Without giving to much away, as the film progresses, the potentially effected people learn more about the virus they may have been inflicted with, which only causes them more troubles as the hours continue. Additionally, the scenes of the government agents attempting to find a cure before a potential outbreak occurs are also suspenseful, with the only key problem being a suicide that seems thrown in as a way to add variety to the deaths that occur.In all this movie is well played. The locations and settings are appropriate. The railroad station seems like any old work place, not necessarily a place where a dramatic virus outbreak would be taking place. The setting is scary because it looks like some where you'd visit in your day to day life in any rural location, making The Alpha Incident seem all the more relateable.The characters themselves are played appropriately as well. Dr. Sorensen, (Stafford Morgan) the government agent is perhaps the best played, portraying a man trying to control a situation that is completely out of his hands. The other quarantined characters do a fine job as well, all of whom are worried about their lives, but do a varying job attempting to hide their fear. My only gripe is Buck Flower's character, Hank who does come off as somewhat man/childish, but it does aid in the sympathy to his character. In many of the reviews, the ending of The Alpha Incident is often criticized, as many say it bears too much of a resemblance to the ending of Night of the Living Dead. I don't believe this is a fair comparison. SPOILER ALERT: The protagonist in Night of the Living Dead is killed by the government by accident, because he is mistaken for a zombie; in the Alpha Incident the protagonist is killed purposefully, as to cover up the government's virus program.In all this is a good film. It borders on earning the distinction of a popcorn flick, but it is suspenseful enough to earn a serious viewing. Not my favorite, but recommended.
bkoganbing
The Alpha Incident involves a microorganism from Mars escaping due to the stupidity and carelessness of a railroad baggage handler. Not to mention the imbecility of NASA scientists sending the thing by regular express mail so as to not cause any attention.So now with the quick thinking that characterizes science fiction movies like these the organism is quarantined at a remote rail station and five people are kept in isolation while scientists work to find a cure, for what they're not sure, but we soon see.The only cast name I'm sure you might remember is Ralph Meeker, the rest are total unknowns, at least to me they are. The film is an interesting idea, but one more suited to a television episode of The Outer Limits.
Woodyanders
A surprisingly solid, engrossing and reasonably tense $1.98 one set wonder drive-in sci-fi thriller in the same strange, deadly disease from outer space medical chiller vein as "The Andromeda Strain." The Viking space probe returns from Mars with an unwanted guest: a weird, fatal, positively unknowable plague which kills its victims when they fall asleep, causing their heads to expand until their skulls crack open and their brains come seeping out. A motley assortment of five people at a remote Wisconsin railway station get the lethal bug and must do their best to stay awake while scientists work around the clock to whip up a cure before it's too late.Directed, produced and edited as a true labor of low-budget love by Bill Rebane, whose largely awful cinematic track record includes the laughably horrible "The Giant Spider Invasion," "The Alpha Incident" comes across as a most pleasant surprise. Granted, what we have here is very little money, a minimal set, a small cast, strictly elementary music and cinematography, but plenty of ambition and a welcome smidgen of genuine film-making ability. It's the rare movie where its paltry five-and-ten cent production cost and tight, pared down, stripped-to-the-bare-essentials look and feel actually work in its favor; the total lack of potentially credibility-killing high gloss razzle dazzle ensures that the picture's gritty, no-frills style retains an oddly arresting and utterly convincing sense of plain, everyday, true-to-life mundane plausibility which in turn both heightens and strengthens the steadily escalating suspense. Ingrid Neumayer's uncommonly well thought-out script is another substantial plus, scoring points for its increasingly bleak, pessimistic tone (the dark, downbeat ending is especially potent), hard cynical attitude towards secretive, sinister military operations, barbed dialogue ("Don't look at me like I'm crazy -- I'm trying to stay alive!"), clearly drawn and distinctive characters, and an intriguing air of general mystery.The cast of dependable B-movie vets come through with capable performances: frequent bit player and occasional screenwriter John ("The Witch Who Came from the Sea," "They Live") Goff in a rare meaty leading role as breezy, feisty, antagonistic blue collar hothead Jack, Stafford ("The Stunt Man," "The Forest") Morgan as enigmatic, levelheaded biochemist Sorenson, Ralph ("The Food of the Gods," "Without Warning") Meeker as weary, doddering train depot manager Charlie, Carol Irene Newell as perky secretary Jane, softcore sexploitation film regular John ("The Black Godfather," "This Is A Hijack!") Alderman as coldly rational researcher Dr. Rogers, and, best of all, the always entertaining and invigorating George "Buck" Flower as gabby, gregarious railroad worker Hank, a lovable ol' slob who unwittingly first catches the maleficent contagion when his curiosity gets the best of him. Truth be told, this feature sure ain't no earth-shattering major work of cinematic art, but for a down'n'dirty spare change grindhouse quickie "The Alpha Incident" is fine of its type and packs an unexpectedly strong wallop.
