IT CAME FROM THE DESERT. (2017) DIRECTED/STORY BY MARKO MAKILAAKSO.
MUSIC BY MIKA MAKILAAKSO.
STARRING VANESSA GRASSE, MARK ARNOLD, ALEX MILLS AND HARRY LISTER SMITH.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
'An action-packed monster movie inspired by the cult classic 1980s video game.'
'Squirrel dudes, I come in peace! I have no nuts to give you. Wait a minute, you're not squirrels...!'
This is a bit of fun, a creature-feature set in modern times but undoubtedly influenced by the fantastic old B-movies of the '50s and '60s. I'm not familiar with the video game on which it's meant to be based, because frankly I'd rather eat my own head served with a side-salad and vinaigrette dressing than have anything at all to do with video games, but I definitely appreciate the homage to the B-movies and the reference to the other great films as well which obviously had an influence on the director.
The plot is simple enough. A group of annoying teens interested in the incomprehensible sport of motocross (boring, lol) all converge on the desert in New Mexico for a giant kegger and motocross awards ceremony.
Presenting the awards is the chap who plays The Eradicator, a sort of motorbike superhero who always gets the girl ('Gimme me some sugar, honey!') and who is the star of several of his own films. He's a cool kind of bearded dude that all the girls want to get with and all the guys want to be like. Well, good luck with that, lol.
The awards ceremony is really just an excuse for a giant piss-up in the middle of the hot, dusty desert. The booze flows like water, the girls are stripping down to their skimpy bikinis and there's even a designated sex-caravan known as the 'love wagon' for randy couples who don't feel like waiting to get home before they can make the beast with two backs. No-good horny teens gon' come to a bad end, you know it.
Our heroes are Brian and Lucas, two motorbike nuts and best mates who are determined to wring all the fun they can get from this rowdy weekend of sex, sand, suds (beer!) and sun. Lucas is the biking heart-throb with the IQ of a bottle of shampoo.
Brian looks like the love child of Ed Sheeran and One Direction's Niall Horan. He's the smart one, resigned to the fact that the gals will always flock to Lucas while leaving himself relatively out in the cold.
Films are full of pairings like this. The dopey guy with the good looks to whom girls naturally flock and the smart bloke who can only stand by and watch with a heavy heart. Well, not the sex, he shouldn't be watching the sex, I meant watching while his cerebrally-challenged but attractive mate pulls the birds without so much as lifting a finger while he himself- the Brainiac- gets sidelined time and again.
Lucas, however, aware that Brian is hopelessly in love with a pretty girl called Lisa, has invited this Lisa along to the kegger, telling Brian that now's the chance to plight his troth. In other words, speak now or forever hold your peace, dude. Brian is terrified but excited.
During the kegger, Brian and Lucas wander away from the group who are busy chugging-a-lug. Out in the heart of the desert, they discover what looks like a giant abandoned underground military laboratory.
They'd be nuts not to explore it, right? Even though when you see these places in movies, they're normally populated only by silent crash-test dummies, blindly 'watching' their 'Fifties TV set, who are about to be blown sky-high in a bomb-trial being kept secret from the public. As if that or any other safety concerns would stop two dopey teens from interfering in something that's not in any way, shape or form their business, lol.
The sprawling, empty laboratory is home to a bone-chilling secret. Namely, a colony of gigantic mutant killer ants not unconnected to the fall to Earth of a massive meteorite back in
the 1950s. The very period when the inhabitants of said Earth felt themselves to be very much in the shadow of the atomic bomb and a lot of strange scary stuff was going on behind the scenes at places like this, unbeknownst to the general public.
Naturally, the boys' clumsy, noisy entrance into the silent laboratory has awakened the killer ants and pissed them off big-time into the bargain. The special effects are terrific and the giant ants are genuinely frightening.
You would not want to encounter even one of them creeping around your bathroom, I can assure you. And I'm betting you don't possess a rolled-up newspaper big enough to squash one of these buggers...!
Can Brian and Lucas save the kegger- not to mention the Earth at large- from the invasion of the mutant killer ants, while impressing the Eradicator and getting Lisa to swoon adoringly into Brian's manly black-leather-clad arms? I think that can be arranged, lol.
I love the way that the film references films like JURASSIC PARK, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THEM! The director obviously loves his creature-features, B-movies and big blockbuster monster films, which makes him ideally placed to create an homage like IT CAME FROM THE DESERT.
It's fun, the dialogue is witty and clever and there are tons of dangerous stunts to oooh-and-aaah over. It has giant mutant killer ants in it, and the ants are chronic flippin' alcoholics to boot. Now, I don't know about you guys but I'm happy...!
IT CAME FROM THE DESERT is available to buy on DVD now from THUNDERBIRD RELEASING.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger, poet and book-and-movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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