Without Warning

1980 "It Preys On Human Fear. It Feeds On Human Flesh."
5.1| 1h37m| R| en
Details

Sandy and Greg are teenagers who go camping, despite warnings not to, with their friends. They soon encounter aliens, who are using the area as a hunting ground.

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Also starring Tarah Nutter

Also starring Christopher S. Nelson

Reviews

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.
Dotbankey A lot of fun.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
VideoXploiter The movie drags in places, but it's that same slow-pacing that often facilitates the sudden scares. Jack Palance and Martin Landau add some grizzled gravitas, while the younger actors play their roles serviceably - one such fresh-faced thespian being David Caruso. The filmmakers used their limited budget effectively, from the aliens method of dispatching it's victims, to said creatures reveal at the end. The end sequence itself is kick-ass, with Jack Palance stealing the show. I recommend this love-letter to 50s sci-fi horror movies.
WisdomsHammer If you're watching this for Landau, Palance, or Caruso, you will be sorely disappointed in most of the movie. I suggest skipping almost the entire thing and watching the last 10 minutes. Otherwise you will be subjected to cliche after cliche until you can't stand it anymore. Honestly, everything worth seeing is in the last 10 minutes. You get Palance and Landau playing over-the-top crazy like only they can, Palance actually saying intelligent things in a movie filled with nonsense, you get to see the only scenes with the actual alien in them, and you see the payoff, which is also cliche and isn't worth suffering through the whole thing. Since this is Caruso's first movie, he's early fodder and doesn't have much of a part. Most of the movie follows two young actors in a performance that is torture to sit through. The script doesn't help. If you insist on watching this in its entirety, I suggest doing it while drunk. Good luck.
TheLittleSongbird Was anticipating worse judging from the mixed to negative reviews seen for this film, while it didn't completely grab me it didn't make me mad either. Basically it is a mildly entertaining and harmless diversion, no more, no less.The performances of Jack Palance and Martin Landau have garnered mixed views, some viewers finding them a lot of fun and others feeling that they over-acted. This viewer is of the opinion that they were a lot of fun to watch and were by far the most involved actors in the cast. The overacting complaints are understandable in the case of Landau who admittedly is over-the-top and not all his scenes add to the film as effectively as they could have done, but because his character is meant to be deranged and that Landau succeeds very well at making Sarge gloriously unhinged the over-the-top-ness is forgivable. Palance is wonderfully cranky and brings a curmudgeonly charm to his eccentric role whenever he appears, and actually for late career Palance it's not that hammy, with the exception of the ALIEN line at the end.As for other virtues, Tarah Nutter does a credible job in the female lead role, of the younger cast she is the only one to have any material with any real meat to it, due to being on screen the longest of them, and to really convince. Kevin Peter Hall is a cool-looking and subtly terrifying alien, definitely making a good impression with his little (which was wisely limited, any more and it would have taken some of the mystery away) screen time. There are some fun and creepy moments, the climax is fun if also somewhat illogical and the flying discs do provide an unsettlingly creepy effect, on first viewing Greg's death was nightmare inducing and the scene with the boy scouts still has shock value. Greydon Clark wisely doesn't take things too seriously, while making sure that the fun and creepiness is a good mix and doesn't overshadow the other, while not entirely succeeding in making them run consistently throughout the film.Quality of the effects , the look of the film and script are mixed. The flying discs look good on their victims and have a real gory effect but look rather cheap journeying to them. Without Warning is slickly filmed with some atmosphere in the lighting, though the sets are limited, some exteriors are lit too darkly and a few of the shots in the middle third go on for too long inexplicably, seeming to only do that for padding purposes. With the script, Palance has all the best lines, there is a nice knowing tongue-in-cheek humour and Landau's dialogue at the end is delightfully kooky and while it lacks character motivation logic (and it's easy to mistake it for an all too easy way to get killed) it fits with Sarge's state of mind, but the dialogue elsewhere for almost all the younger cast is very awkward, with some clunky gaps, and confused stuff delivered stiffly.Of the younger cast, only Nutter convinces, everybody else has very little to do and come and go (some going quicker than when they were introduced) and they are all rather stiff. Ralph Meeker, Cameron Mitchell and Neville Brand are not bad in their roles but have nothing to do, and Larry Storch is rather irritating here. Character development is sketchy at best, only Palance and Landau have any development. Without Warning deserves credit for having an original premise, but more could have been done with it. It entertains certainly and is fun, suspenseful and creepy but those factors don't come consistently and too much of the story is padded out (to make up for that not a lot happens here and to sustain the somewhat too long running time), a little on the predictable side and there is a lack of logic in places (mainly in the behaviour of the characters). Pacing is also a real issue, with too many dull stretches, especially in the transition from the middle act to the last which is an almost endless drag, and would have benefited from less of the long shots and a couple of Landau's scenes (some like in the car going on for too long and not bringing an awful lot to the story, feeling more like padding than anything else) being trimmed down or excised, which would have made the film fifteen minutes shorter perhaps.In conclusion, mildly entertaining and a harmless diversion, that didn't leave me either completely riveted or angry, but it is a bit dull and more definitely could have been done with the premise. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) I remember seeing the movie trailer one time when I was living in Long Island. Though I was way too young to see it. The movie may have been a limited premier in some places, it should have been nationwide later on. It has a great cast. Martin Landau ( Mission: Impossible, Space:1999), Jack Parlance, the biggest movie veteran ever. What more could you want? How about the 7'2" star Kevin Peter Hall who would later play BigFoot in "Harry and The Hendersons", and "Predator" ! In this movie, he plays this unnamed alien hunter who stalks the humans on Earth. His first kills are a father and son who are enjoying the outdoors and it would be the last for them as well. And the Scout leader was an unfortunate victim, leaving the Scouts running for their lives. How does this alien hunter kills so swiftly? By using these hideous discs that come alive when it hits the victim. So when the four friends went out to the lake to have fun, only two of them encounter the horror themselves. Later on, they meet a former Army Sergeant who still think he's in the war, feel there is an invasion. The store owner happens to be the most trusting is the one the two seems feel safe with. The whole ordeal with this movie is to survive the terror of being hunted by an alien hunter. A very good movie, just a bit overlooked, though.