From: andy@research.canon.oz.au (Andy Newman)
Subject: Re: XTRO ***SPOILERS*** (was Re: Movie sorta like Aliens name ???)
Organization: Canon Information Systems Research Australia
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 06:38:31 GMT

wcstom@alfred.carleton.ca (Tom Hamill) writes:
>>I saw it a while ago, and can't remember much of it (it was at a
>>party), but I remember thinking it was Alien.
>>
>I discovered XTRO because of the "sequel", XTRO II, an aliens-in-space
>shoot-em-up starring the quintessential 'B' movie actor, Jan Michael
>Vincent.  In reality, the only connection between the two that I could
>see was the name of the movie.  XTRO was produced in Britian, and
>although we get a lot of British movies here in Canada, I'd never
>heard of any of the actors.  XTRO II was made with American actors and
>had no internal references to its predecessor at all.
>
>In any event, Simon, you are correct, the overriding impression I got
>of these movies was that they were Alien in a different disguise,
>although II was more of a direct ripoff than the original XTRO, which
>was produced, I believe, sometime in the late '70's.
>

I have to disagree with you about Xtro. It is nothing like
Aliens/FaceHuggers-10. It is quite a good film in its own right and
won awards for best SF film at a European film show.

>(How on earth do you insert those control-L's into a posting?)

Like this ;-)


>
>                **********SPOILERS FOLLOW*******
>

You bet!

>
>XTRO is a horror/sci-fi thriller that is basically similar to the
>eggs-f'hugger-coccooning scenario(though not necessarily in that
>order)that characterizes 'Alien'.  And while it is impossible to
>ignore the similarities between the two, the story lines and settings
>are so different that the one is not just a clone of the other--no
>matter which one came first.
>

What are the similarities? (I haven't seen it in a while but here's an
attempt at a summary)....


The Xtro story concerns a husband who has been kidnapped by some sort
of alien. His son witnesses the abduction. The husband is transformed
in some way and lives with the aliens. Several years after the
abduction the husband returns to Earth, to get his son.

The husband/creature must appear as a human and undergoes some sort of
"re-birth" (this is the scene mentioned in the previous post - the
creature rapes a woman who then gives birth to a fully grown adult
male [the woman is killed in the process]).

The husband re-enter's his family's life and starts the transformation
of his son. During this transformation the son obtains psycho-kinetic
powers - he is able to animate his toys etc... Much of the story then
revolves around the son and his powers (he uses his soldier doll to
murder the nagging neighbour; he turns the au pair girl into an egg
laying machne, etc... I'm a little shaky on these details)

Finally the aliens return and the husband and son return with them.
There is a final scene where we see the two of them next to the space
craft - they look like skeletons.

I think its a great film!

As for Xtro II I have never seen it and from all accounts it sounds as
if it is not worth watching.

Anyone fill in the missing details?

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--
Andy Newman (andy@research.canon.oz.au)
-- 
Andy Newman (andy@research.canon.oz.au)