Without Warning

Plot synopsis:
A young man and his father go hunting in a mountain area with forests somewhere in the American Midwest. Before they get to hunt anything, which the son is not to eager to do anyway, both of them get killed by strange flying jellyfish-like creatures which hit them and penetrate their skin with sharp-tipped tentacles.Some time later, four young teenagers, Tom, Greg, Beth and Sandy, go on a hike in the same area, ignoring the warnings of Joe Taylor, a local truck stop owner (Jack Palance). A group of cub scouts is also in the area; their leader (Larry Storch) is also killed by the alien creatures, while his cubs run into an unidentified humanoid and flee.The youths begin their vacation at a lake, but after a few hours, Tom and Beth disappear. Sandy and Greg go looking for them, and discover their dead bodies in an abandoned shack. They flee in their van, being attacked by one of the creatures, which tries to get through the car's windshield. After they have gotten rid of it, they come to the truck stop. Greg tries to get help from the locals, but they do not believe him, with the exception of Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs (Martin Landau), who is a mentally ill veteran. Meanwhile, Sandy encounters the strange humanoid and flees into the woods, where Joe Taylor finds her and returns her to Greg.While they discuss the situation, the sheriff arrives, but Sarge shoots him and begins to get more and more paranoid. Greg and Sandy leave with Taylor, who has been attacked by the humanoid before and secretly keeps the flying jellyfish as trophies, and go searching for the shack. Once there, Taylor goes inside but finds nothing but the dead bodies of Tom, Beth and the cub scout leader. They discuss waiting for the creature when Taylor is attacked by another "jellyfish". The young people flee once again, leaving him behind as ordered. They stop a police car and enter it, but find it to be driven by Sarge, who abducts them, believing them to be aliens. Greg plays along, telling the deranged man that an invasion force is on the way, thus distracting him enough to toss him aside, run away with Sandy and jump from a bridge.They make it to a house where they find new clothing and try to relax. In the night, Sandy wakes up and goes looking for Greg, only to discover that he has been killed by the alien, who is still in the room. She flees to the basement and the creature is about to get her when Taylor arrives and saves her. On the way to the shack, he tells her about the creature: it is a tall extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) who hunts humans for sport to keep as trophies, using the living creatures as living weapons against its prey.They wait at the shack to ambush the hunter with dynamite when Sarge shows up, almost spoiling their plan. He and Taylor fight, and Sandy is about to hit Sarge from behind when the alien arrives and kills Sarge. Taylor then shoots the creature, with little to no effect. Realizing the last chance of success, he lures it to the shack, which is then blown up by Sandy. She alone survives the horrible night.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
some people are brutally killed and mutilated by an unknown stranger, and it's the turn of a bunch of teenagers and war veterans to find out that an illegal alien has landed and is hunting for humans for his horrible collection...Although this movie shows lots of stereotypes and well-known topics from many horror movies from the 50's to the 70's like "It Came From Outer Space", "The Thing", Jack Arnold and Roger Corman cheapos, "Night of the Living Dead", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Three on a Meathook" and even "Alien" and the new wave of high school slasher movies like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", it's an entertaining and thrilling affair.There are some old movie veterans like Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Ralph Meeker, Cameron Mitchell and Neville Brand involved with Palance and Landau playing the mad alien hunters, and a young David Caruso in his very first movie role.
Director Greydon Clark never had a big break-through movie, but photographer Dean Cundey had a big time in the nineties with jobs for "Apollo 13", "Casper", "The Flintstones" and the Spielberg hits "Hook" and "Jurassic Park".All in all it's a nice midnight movie and a small highlight for fans of seventies' paranoia horror films in the wake of the remakes of old alien, monster and disaster film productions.
But trust me, this is what I do for a living: Anyone with a taste for outrageous, low budget Amercian made regional horror will find a masterpiece here waiting to be unleashed.The plot is already summed up well by other admirers: Alien being decides to go hunting in the woods of what looks like rural Oklahoma using an elaboration on those flying pancake monsters from the old "Star Trek" series that would smack onto someone's back and drive them insane.
The Alien's flying pancake killings are gory, inventively staged, unpredictable in occurrence and made to create squeals of disgust from viewers, who if they allow themselves to get caught up in the proceedings will feel like they are 10 years old again & watching Creature Feature matinée when they should be outside doing chores.
Even without any exploitational nudity, this movie is a guilty pleasure dream come true.BUT, the thing that entranced me the most about the film was -- amazingly -- the performances, or rather the job of the actors in personifying the community of individuals depicted, all of whom come across as real people in the same way that "The Simpson's" characters also feel real.
The movie looks like it was filmed in & around the woods down by the drainage ditch about three blocks away, and is proof that you don't need a huge budget, a moron A-list face like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt or flashy computer generated effects to make a very satisfying little creature feature.
But make no mistake & listen not to the Negative Nellies from Sector Nine: You won't regret investing your 90 minutes into this movie if low budget horror alien invasion and wacko backwoods regional quirk films are your cup of tea.
The fun and gooey make-up FX are by Greg Cannon.If the campy, silly plot isn't enough to get you tuned in, keep in mind it costars Jack Palance as a grizzled gas station owner, Cameron Mitchell as a sadistic hunter and an out-of-control Martin Landau as a ranting, raving, insane Vietnam vet!
David (NYPD BLUE) Caruso also puts in an early appearance and the alien is played by giant Kevin Peter Hall, who went on the play the monster in the PREDATOR films.Fun flick!Score: 6 out of 10.
I recall that the film had a nice updated 1950's sci-fi feel to it (like Humanoids, a little atmosphere, some laughs (frisbees etc.), hammy performances (Landau Palance) and Larry Storch.
This "AIP Movie Era" was sadly coming to a close and "Without Warning" is a great example of this late lamented(?)style of cinema.I can still hear Jack Palance screaming "ALIEN!!!!!"................sigh...
It's nicely done, although it looks like a Kolchak/Night Stalker episode.However, the little frisbee/alien/thingies are extremely creepy, and strike me as very effective considering the low-budget.The alien "hunter" looks like they got the costume from Outer Limits.Overall, I'd recommend this movie, despite the hammy performances.
This low budget horror film starred a trio of hard living actors (Jack Palance, Neville Brand and Martin Landau).
But LAndau and Palance went on to greater fame years later (the two even co-star in the highly underrated horror film ALONE IN THE DARK).The movie is about a giant alien who likes to stalk humans.
Seven years before Arnold Schwarzenegger got to say "I'll be back" for the tenth time, this low budget science fiction slasher movie introduced audiences to the idea of alien hunters going after human prey.
Lots of familiar faces, including Martin Landau, Cameron MItchell, Jack Palance, a very young David Caruso, Larry Storch for TV's F-Troop, and last but not least, Kevin Peter Hall as the alien hunter, seven years before he got to kick Arnold's butt in Predator.If you can forgive the low production value and the cheesy script, then you might want to give Without Warning a look..
Greydon Clark's WITHOUT WARNING--This 1980 Horror Starring Jack Palance and Martin Landau is one of the best horror movies of 1980.
***SPOILERS*** Low-budget alien from outer space movie where this moon-headed looking alien has a local community somewhere in middle-America targeted to be hunted down and killed for food and, after the humans are processed and eater,trophies.Starting off by killing a father and son, Cameron Mitchell & Durby Hinton, who are out camping in the wild than a scoutmaster, Larry Storch,who's team of cub-scouts run for their lives the alien catches a young vacationing couple Tom & Beth, David Caruso & Lynn Theel, all by themselves separated from their two friends Greg & Sandy, Christopher S.
The alien uses these strange looking blood-sucking critters tossing them at it's intended victims like Frisbee's that stick to their bodies sucking the life-blood out of them.With Greg and Sandy running for their lives and for help at a local bar their looked upon as if their kooks by everyone there but Fred "Sarge" Dobbs, Martin Landou.
The local gas station owner Tom Taylor, Jack Palance, who earlier warned both couples not to go down by the lake where the alien was also knows that what Greg & Sandy are saying is true but is a cool and calculating hunter who's in control of his mental faculties, unlike Sarge.
Taylor knows what the alien is up to and plans to beat it at it's own game by him being the hunter not, like all the alien's victims, the hunted.The movie "Without Warning" does hold an unusual amount of tension for a low-budget horror film never letting it's audience get as much as a breather as it slowly moves to it's final confrontation between man and alien in the dark and creepy forest outside of town.
Taylor knowing that he doesn't have long to live maneuvers, by using himself as a decoy, the alien into the storehouse where Sandy, at a safe distance, set off the dynamite blowing both Taylor and the alien to pieces.One of the better alien from space movies of the late 1970's and 1980's that does the most with it's very meager budget to come across far better then the more expensive and better advertised like-wise films released back in those days after the success of the 1979 alien from space blockbuster "Alien"..
The cornball sci-fi flick "Without Warning" is widely seen as a semi-inspiration for the more famous "Predator", which also stars Kevin Peter Hall as an alien that goes around killing humans.
What I notice is that the stars of this movie, Jack Palance and Martin Landau, both eventually went on to win Best Supporting Actor, much like how "Predator" stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura later became governors.Anyway, the movie is about what you'd expect.
Watch closely in the first ten minutes and you'll see future NYPD Blue/CSI star David Caruso as one of the first to encounter the deadly alien, played by late-giant Kevin Peter Hall.Greydon Clark's sci-fi is almost a parody of sorts, though it doesn't compromise on the shock and gore employing creative special effects that conjure some genuine thrills and tension.
Pretty average science fiction movie that has flaws and assets that about balance each other out.The plot is an early predecessor of PREDATOR, as an alien hunts humans on Earth.There is an all star cast, or at least six huge names and a cast of unknowns.
The name stars, Cam Mitchell, Jack Palance, Neville Brand, Ralph Meeker, Martin Landau, and Larry Storch, all play character roles.
Without warning is a very rarely seen horror science fiction movie that was the precursor to predator.an awesome cast led by martin landau,jack palance,and ralph meeker in a small role,well actually his last.heres ca quick synopsis,an alien hunter throws these gooey green Frisbees at his prey and they latch on and proceed to suck their blood,then the alien then stores all his trophies in a shack.look for David Caruso in one of his first roles as one of the teens.Cameron Mitchell,Larry storch,Neville brand and sue Ann langdon also star in this weird horror science fiction chiller.i first saw this back in the late 80's on late night TV,of course it was censored.you can see this in all its gory on you tube in 10 parts.as for a DVD i don't think its available just yet,but its very entertaining.7 out of 10..
If not for the fact that there were actual actors in this candidate for the "two-for-$1.oo" bin at your local rental store, "Without Warning" would have went straight into the five cent bin.The alien-goes-hunting-for-humans bit has been seen a hundred zillion times but what makes this one different?
Without Warning (1980)* 1/2 (out of 4) An all-star cast (with two future Oscar-winners) highlight this rather silly, low-budget science fiction movie about an alien stalking a small town where several people fall victim to its boomerang like flying smaller alien.
"Without Warning" is a sadly neglected and underrated precursor of more famous "Predator".It's about a bloodthirsty alien,who preys on humans via fleshy disks with fangs.He kills hunters,horny teenagers and other unfortunate victims near a peaceful swimming lake.Two teens named Sandy and Greg escape from the woods and flee to town.At the local bar no one believes their story except Fred Dobbs(Martin Landau),a vet who has seen the alien hunter and is convinced that it is the first stage of an invasion and that the two surviving teens may be part of it.Now Sandy and Greg must escape from Dobbs as well as elude the hunting alien if they are to survive.Very entertaining and solid sci-fi/horror flick sadly never released on DVD and VHS.The bloodsucking flying disks are terrifying as they dig into the bodies of their victims and spew yellow puss when destroyed and there is plenty of tension.Highly recommended.8 out of 10..
Another point of interest is the number of Hollywood leading men who make appearances in the film as old men, including Ralph Meeker, Martin Landau, Jack Palance, and Cameron Mitchell.Overall, "Without Warning" is strictly a film for a very specific audience.
Honestly, that's when everything worth seeing happens: 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 one
Not only is the plot suspiciously similar—an alien arrives on Earth to hunt humans—but the performer playing the extraterrestrial hunter is the very same person who played the Predator: 6'9" Kevin Peter Hall.Of course, Without Warning isn't the flawless, testosterone fuelled, action-fest that is Predator: for much of the time the plot goes nowhere, with the teen protagonists stumbling from one location to another pursued by both the dome-headed ET and a loopy, gun-toting ex-soldier, Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs (played to the hilt by Martin Landau); meanwhile, Taylor plans to kill the beast.
There's some fun to be had from the wonky alien frisbees, which fly awkwardly through the air and sport burrowing tentacles and gnashing teeth, but a lot of the running time is spent with the characters doing just that: running.The film ends in a manner that is, once again, eerily similar to Predator: Taylor prepares a booby trap and lures the alien by shouting 'come on!'.
The plot of the film is simple: Using bizarre looking but deadly living blood suckers as weapons, an alien creature from who knows where is ruthlessly stalking human prey alongside a rural lake for the sheer fun of it.
This film is SOOO awful, I can't forget it.When Jack Palance passed away, I started thinking about "that film he was in that was so bad." Finally, the name of the movie came back to me and I did a search, only to reminded of the horror...Yes, I was one of the probably several thousand people who actually saw this on its opening weekend in a theatre.
Same old story that we've seen a cazillion times over where a nasty alien comes to the countryside and starts hunting the locals!There are no spaceships in this one, but when you sign on Jack Planace and Martin Landau to play in a B sci-fi thriller, how much budget do you expect to have left for anything else?The late Kevin Peter Hall plays the alien (he also plays the Predator in the film with Arnie a few years later) and he probably worked on this flick for one day if that, as you never even get a glimpse of him until the last 20 minutes of the movie, and even then it's just quick looks in the dark.
(David's a LONG way from CSI: Miami in this one folks!)Martin Landau does a fine job of playing a whacked-out ex-military type who nobody believes when he talks about seeing the little "flyin' critters" and Jack Palance is, well...Jack.Be sure to take notice of the mega-budget special effects, when Jack shoots at the alien with his rifle and the hits him in the left shoulder (toward the end).
Although it was a delight a delight to see Martin Landau and Jack Palance star together in one horror movie!
By the way, I think the people behind the first "Predator" film stole the movie's basic plot element, namely: the reason for this alien to be on earth.
After a horrific ordeal Greg and Sandy are reunited with their old friend Joe Taylor (Jack Palance) and an eccentric Vietnam war veteran, Fred Dobbs (Martin Landau) who both have their own ideas on how to deal with this alien who (I'm afraid to say) is not seen until the final scene in the movie.
"Without Warning" is pretty good fun for fans of low budget monster movies, and as I'm sure has been pointed out numerous times before, works as a B level predecessor to the slicker and grander "Predator".
Unfortunately, his work never led to any mainstream success but a number of his movies are now enjoyed as cult favourites.An amazing cast of familiar faces is fun to watch: Jack Palance as crusty gas station owner Taylor, Martin Landau as the completely unhinged ex-military man Dobbs (these two were reunited for Jack Sholders' "Alone in the Dark" two years later), Neville Brand and Ralph Meeker as barflies, Larry Storch as a Scoutmaster, Cameron Mitchell as a macho hunter and Darby Hinton as his son, Sue Ane Langdon as bar owner Aggie, and David Caruso in one of his earliest screen roles as one of the four young people who venture into the woods for a good time.
Co-stars Tarah Nutter and Lynn Theel look quite nice in their bikinis and are very likable as well.One of the best things about the movie is that for a while we're led to believe that the ugly little miniature Frisbees flying around are the menace when in fact they're used as a means of incapacitating victims by the alien antagonist, who doesn't get a proper reveal until about a dozen minutes from the end.
The plot may be simple and familiar, yet THE WARNING offers up some great special effects in the form of the alien disc creatures, lots of slimy gore scenes, and a solid cast going through their paces, making it a unique genre crossbreed and a must-see for B-movie fans.
Without Warning might be cheap and kinda lame but it's a laugh-riot, it's incredibly nostalgic and the rural setting is something you just don't see in films today.Jack Palance and Martin Landau steal every scene they're in, they were probably the best actors in the whole film and they both play rather odd characters.
"The Warning" stars Jack Palance (confidence is sexy don't you think) and Martin Landau and is about an alien that comes to earth to hunt humans.
Yes it does have problems, some scenes seemed padded to get a 90 minute running time like overlong sequences of nothing going on but talking and looking around and the fact that the alien does not appear until the last 15 minutes of the film kind of sucks but for a movie about an Alien who uses pancake monsters via fastball express to kill people it wasn't half bad.
There's a good cast in this one, Martin Landau, Jack Palance, Neville Brand & Cameron Mitchell all make an appearance.Without Warning is a good sci-fi horror film that works well & I'd be surprised if it didn't inspire the makers of Predator to some degree.
I would like to think they did it on purpose and so cut them a great deal of slack, mostly by laughing at it all in a good natured sort of way.The basic plot, which would be lifted by Predator several years later, has an alien visiting earth and hunting the human here for trophies.