First and foremost, I'd like to make it clear that I'm a huge fan of classic, low budget, lost gem horror movies. I don't expect anything special from films like Without Warning, and I don't go in with high expectations. Give me a cheesy alien, some gory/creative death scenes, and a decent handful of sci-fi/horror imagery, and I'll have a good time. Having read the other strangely positive reviews on here, I watched this expecting as much...
Unfortunately, Without Warning seems to go out of its way to NOT deliver on just about everything it promises. Is there a cool looking alien? Eh, it looks okay, but it only appears for the first time over 80 minutes into the 95 minute film - and, aside from one quick shot, it has only a single scene (the final scene) where it does little more than stand there for a couple of minutes. Sci-fi imagery? Well, the alien frisbees were a nice touch... until you get to the end of the film and realise they're the ONLY manner of attack the alien has, meaning the alien frisbees are literally the only sci-fi or "alien" thing we see in the whole movie, aside from the brief appearances of the alien itself in the final act. This means that when you see the first attack the film has to offer, you've already seen EVERY attack the film has to offer. Gory and varied death scenes? There are none. Sure, there are a couple of cool shots of dead bodies following off-screen kills... but ultimately there are only two on-screen death scenes in this entire movie (both in the last five minutes), one of which is carried out in exactly the same manner as every other attack in the film - the alien frisbees, which are just entirely dull, stale and overused at that point.
What this film ends up being is an alien hunter horror movie... where you hardly see the rather plain-looking alien at all during the entire runtime, with practically no on-screen deaths, no variety to any of the kills or attacks, minimal special effects throughout, a plodding and drawn out plot, and the same boring manner of "hunting" which is only interesting the first couple of times you see it before it quickly grows extremely dull. The film is basically 90% padding of characters going back and forth (whether in the forest, the nearby bar, or the abandoned house), with nothing happening that's of any interest, meaning that any tension or atmosphere the film might have to offer to make up for its faults is long gone before the film even reaches its halfway point.
This is not an exaggeration. Without Warning seems to deliberately go out of its way to not truly provide the viewer with what its premise promises, instead apparently trying to give you as little as possible of what you wanted from the movie when you decided to watch it. The result is a painfully dull movie that can't even earn the so-bad-it's-good label. It just doesn't try, and it truly is a bland, boring, uncreative watch that's a struggle to get through.
If you're wanting a low-budget 80s popcorn sci-fi/horror flick, there are countless movies out there that are far, far more worth your time. I'd suggest Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, and Creepozoids, just to name a few.
Consider this a warning.
Unfortunately, Without Warning seems to go out of its way to NOT deliver on just about everything it promises. Is there a cool looking alien? Eh, it looks okay, but it only appears for the first time over 80 minutes into the 95 minute film - and, aside from one quick shot, it has only a single scene (the final scene) where it does little more than stand there for a couple of minutes. Sci-fi imagery? Well, the alien frisbees were a nice touch... until you get to the end of the film and realise they're the ONLY manner of attack the alien has, meaning the alien frisbees are literally the only sci-fi or "alien" thing we see in the whole movie, aside from the brief appearances of the alien itself in the final act. This means that when you see the first attack the film has to offer, you've already seen EVERY attack the film has to offer. Gory and varied death scenes? There are none. Sure, there are a couple of cool shots of dead bodies following off-screen kills... but ultimately there are only two on-screen death scenes in this entire movie (both in the last five minutes), one of which is carried out in exactly the same manner as every other attack in the film - the alien frisbees, which are just entirely dull, stale and overused at that point.
What this film ends up being is an alien hunter horror movie... where you hardly see the rather plain-looking alien at all during the entire runtime, with practically no on-screen deaths, no variety to any of the kills or attacks, minimal special effects throughout, a plodding and drawn out plot, and the same boring manner of "hunting" which is only interesting the first couple of times you see it before it quickly grows extremely dull. The film is basically 90% padding of characters going back and forth (whether in the forest, the nearby bar, or the abandoned house), with nothing happening that's of any interest, meaning that any tension or atmosphere the film might have to offer to make up for its faults is long gone before the film even reaches its halfway point.
This is not an exaggeration. Without Warning seems to deliberately go out of its way to not truly provide the viewer with what its premise promises, instead apparently trying to give you as little as possible of what you wanted from the movie when you decided to watch it. The result is a painfully dull movie that can't even earn the so-bad-it's-good label. It just doesn't try, and it truly is a bland, boring, uncreative watch that's a struggle to get through.
If you're wanting a low-budget 80s popcorn sci-fi/horror flick, there are countless movies out there that are far, far more worth your time. I'd suggest Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, and Creepozoids, just to name a few.
Consider this a warning.