Ex-SETI cryptologist Julian Rome (James Spader) travels to Antarctica when Grisham (Carl Lewis), the communications officer at a research facility, discovers an object of likely extraterrestrial origin putting out a strong radio signal. Stationed at the lab is Julian’s ex-lover (Janine Eser), and the obnoxious Michael Straub (John Lynch).
Now here is one of those odd films that I can’t figure how it got made or what the intentions of the filmmakers were. It is an amalgamation of many genre films, both better and worse, made on the cheap in Bulgaria, but with surprisingly high production values, top notch special effects, and a name star in James Spader.
After spending a few minutes as Raider of the Lost Ark and Stargate (Spader is once again a nerdy language expert who has been rejected by the scientific community, only this time he’s a lady’s man who is getting the eye from his hot students), Alien Hunter turns into The Thing (either the 1951 or the 1982 version; they both fit). There are a bunch of research scientists stuck in the snow, out of touch with the rest of the world, and holding on to a slowly defrosting alien pod. You know how this has got to turn out… Except it doesn’t. Right when you think the climax is here, it changes to several other films until it stabilizes as what it is at its heart, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I’d much rather see an original movie, but that doesn’t happen often with Alien films, so I appreciate that they’ve borrowed from a number of films instead of just re-filming Alien as most do. But they swiped from too many sources, ending up with no consistent tone. The film tries to do too much, never quite having time to do any of them justice. Keeping with a combo Stargate/The Thing/The Andromeda Strain would have resulted in a more fluid and interesting picture, but I doubt the producers would have liked the downbeat ending that would have resulted.
I always like Spader. Even when he’s not at his best, he’s interesting. Here, he’s not at his best, playing it too emotionally low key. Maybe he needed some coffee. But he is still more watchable than 95% of low budget actors. The rest of the cast is much better than I’ve come to expect in Eastern European-filmed genre movies, except for Eser, who is also too controlled. Her scenes with Spader are like two unplugged toasters. John Lynch plays his cowardly, nasty scientist over-the-top, but he wasn’t given subtle lines so I can’t see any other way he could have done it. The biggest surprise was track star Carl Lewis who has found a new career. He is believable and likable, making me care more about his fate than anyone else’s.
Where things really went wrong is with the title. With an excess of action-horror films titled Alien XXXX, the title Alien Hunter implies that this will be a good yell-at-the-screen, drink-a-beer, see-aliens-eat-people movie, and it’s not. It isn’t action or horror. I’d call it sci-fi suspense. It’s pretty good for what it is, but a disappointment for what most people think it will be.