Like director Harry Bromley Davenport mentions on the (very amusing and upfront short) interview that comes with the double pairing DVD of the first two films, it's a mess. Simple as that. It's an incoherent slab of twisted ideas and episodic plots, some quite random (a dwarf in a clown costume springs out of nowhere) in quite a bewildering British low-budget Sci-fi / horror production. No wonder why this is considered a cult favourite. Trashy and nasty junk indeed, but unusually compelling because you just don't know how it's going to go about things. Instead of a clear-cut narrative (as it does have a unique spin on the various materials within), the header is to mainly shock, baffle and weird out. It effectively does that with few creative visuals, bloody make-up FX and crass special effects. Achieved from the eerie imagery and Davenport's elastically wallowing synthesizer (sounding quite second-rate, but uncannily otherworldly) score is a thick dose of atmosphere. Even the film's colouring is drearily painted. Davenport's direction is eccentrically boundless and this helps it move quickly without outstaying its welcome, (even if has that slow-burn style to it). The cast are more than decent. Bernice Stegers provides a strong show-in and lifts it up with her presence. Philip Sayer is capably empathetic and the lovely French actress Maryam D'Abo makes her acting debut. A curiously surreal and sombre uneven (purposely I guess?) b-grade fright feature that from the get-go, leaves you pretty much in the dark.
Review of Xtro
