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Between the family and the military, a proper zone for fermenting the apocalypse. Chemical imbalances are the domain of the adolescent (Gabrielle Anwar), Dad (Terry Kinney) is an environmental consultant and the woman he's remarried (Meg Tilly) can't possibly be Mom, their new Army home comes with a dead gecko in the attic. "Did I tell you this place was a freak show?" The base provides a natural nerve center for extraterrestrials specializing in camouflage, their invasion hinges on replacing earthlings with placid facsimiles incubated in pods. (The process is illustrated as the heroine dozes off in a bathtub and the song wafting from her Walkman yields to the squishing of tendrils seeking orifices.) The Desert Storm vet (Billy Wirth) is a rare ally in this tenebrous territory, where unfinished replicas emerge from under beds and the remains of people are swept into dust pans. "They get you when you sleep, but you can only stay awake so long." Visualizing the classic sci-fi scenario for maximum viscous bleakness, Abel Ferrara's version is a maelstrom of expressionistic abstractions wearing the skin of a mainstream genre release. The little stepbrother (Reilly Murphy) holds up his finger-painting project only to notice the identical smears of crimson and black of daycare mates, elsewhere the paranoia-choked Major (Forest Whitaker) quivers by the edge of a poisoned stream while a quartet of silhouettes stands at attention. (Cornered by the intergalactic interlopers, he saves his soul by splattering it across a wall: "We'll show them what the human race is really made of.") Exploding retribution reflected on a young woman's gaze echoes Zabriskie Point, "revenge, hate, remorse, despair, pity and, most of all, fear" mark the triumph of emotion. The closing shot cranes from high angle to low angle for Curran's "eternal vigilance," a happy ending to hollow out the viewer as only Ferrara can. Cinematography by Bojan Bazelli. With R. Lee Ermey, Christine Elise, Kathleen Doyle, G. Elvis Phillips, and Tonea Stewart.
--- Fernando F. Croce |