"Endangered Species" follows a crestfallen New York City cop (Robert Urich) who decides to relocate to the west with his estranged teenage daughter and start a new life. The two end up landing in a small Wyoming town where a local sheriff (JoBeth Williams) is investigating a string of bizarre cattle mutilations. The two eventually team up to solve the incidents, leading to surprising revelations.
This quasi-sci-fi effort from Alan Rudolph is a mostly forgotten film, despite having a rather formidable cast headlined by Urich, Williams, and featuring supporting performances from Paul Dooley and Dan Hedaya. While it is at times light on thrills, what "Endangered Species" succeeds at is effectively capturing the rural small-town west in a way that feels authentic and, at times, foreboding. The rustic downtown and rural locations give the film a unique feel, a far cry from the typical metropolis-set police procedural, and the sense of extraordinary things happening in an ordinary place comes on strong.
Urich's portrayal of a struggling and detached alcoholic here is appropriately both aloof and vulnerable, while Williams is likable and naturalistic as the solo female sheriff; the two's dynamic rings truthful as NYPD city slicker vs. Small-town sheriff and local farm girl who never left her hometown. The film features some occasionally disturbing imagery involving the cattle mutilations, as well as dated sequences involving computer equipment being used to commit the crimes for potentially nefarious (and conspiratorial) reasons.
Though its pacing is at times sluggish in the first half, the film ramps up in its last half-hour, and descends into full-on government conspiracy territory; while it seems to be pointed in this direction all along, the unfolding of events manages to be no less engaging. Overall, "Endangered Species" is an enjoyable and atmospheric sci-fi horror effort that is light in both; it's more a psychological thriller with touches of sci-fi and horror, but a paranoid-feeling one all the same. 8/10.
This quasi-sci-fi effort from Alan Rudolph is a mostly forgotten film, despite having a rather formidable cast headlined by Urich, Williams, and featuring supporting performances from Paul Dooley and Dan Hedaya. While it is at times light on thrills, what "Endangered Species" succeeds at is effectively capturing the rural small-town west in a way that feels authentic and, at times, foreboding. The rustic downtown and rural locations give the film a unique feel, a far cry from the typical metropolis-set police procedural, and the sense of extraordinary things happening in an ordinary place comes on strong.
Urich's portrayal of a struggling and detached alcoholic here is appropriately both aloof and vulnerable, while Williams is likable and naturalistic as the solo female sheriff; the two's dynamic rings truthful as NYPD city slicker vs. Small-town sheriff and local farm girl who never left her hometown. The film features some occasionally disturbing imagery involving the cattle mutilations, as well as dated sequences involving computer equipment being used to commit the crimes for potentially nefarious (and conspiratorial) reasons.
Though its pacing is at times sluggish in the first half, the film ramps up in its last half-hour, and descends into full-on government conspiracy territory; while it seems to be pointed in this direction all along, the unfolding of events manages to be no less engaging. Overall, "Endangered Species" is an enjoyable and atmospheric sci-fi horror effort that is light in both; it's more a psychological thriller with touches of sci-fi and horror, but a paranoid-feeling one all the same. 8/10.