NIGHTBEAST is independent film-maker Don Dohler's follow up to his oddly brilliant ALIEN FACTOR, and it's another quirky, action-packed sci-fi offering. In fact, it's very similar to ALIEN FACTOR, albeit with the crucial difference that there's only a single alien creature rampaging through rural America in this film.
NIGHTBEAST starts with a bang by chronicling the alien's violent arrival on Earth and doesn't really let up from there. The narrative is an odyssey of cheesy 1980s-era computer effects of ray guns firing and subsequent disintegrations, mixed with the more adult exploitation staples of gore and nudity. Of the former, one of the alien's early victims gets graphically disembowelled by the entity, while half of the cast members seem willing to strip down for long-winded sex scenes used to pad out the narrative.
While this padding threatens to drag the film's entertainment value down, thankfully it never overwhelms the production or its emphasis on low-rent action sequences. Although the majority of the movie takes place at night, Dohler keeps things watchable and there's a surprising amount of atmosphere in the production too. The alien itself is undoubtedly inspired by ALIEN but looks even meaner even though the special effects aren't as good.
NIGHTBEAST starts with a bang by chronicling the alien's violent arrival on Earth and doesn't really let up from there. The narrative is an odyssey of cheesy 1980s-era computer effects of ray guns firing and subsequent disintegrations, mixed with the more adult exploitation staples of gore and nudity. Of the former, one of the alien's early victims gets graphically disembowelled by the entity, while half of the cast members seem willing to strip down for long-winded sex scenes used to pad out the narrative.
While this padding threatens to drag the film's entertainment value down, thankfully it never overwhelms the production or its emphasis on low-rent action sequences. Although the majority of the movie takes place at night, Dohler keeps things watchable and there's a surprising amount of atmosphere in the production too. The alien itself is undoubtedly inspired by ALIEN but looks even meaner even though the special effects aren't as good.