History Film / TheAlienFactor

* WhamLine: "My hunch was right: [[spoiler:They never heard of a Benjamin Zachary working at the Garret Observatory]]."

* DownerEnding: The total body count is nearly in the double digits and includes [[spoiler:the mayor and finally the friendly alien sent to kill the monsters due to a misunderstanding.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy: A small-town version as the mayor wants to keep the killings covered up to prevent the loss of an enterprise from building an amusement park in the city, costing the city both revenue and jobs.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted. Sheriff Cinder and Pete do everything they can to track down the monsters and the sheriff does everything he can to keep the second monster away from Mary Jane, even when his bullets aren't hurting it.

* SuitWithVestedInterests: The mayor refuses to call in outside help to deal with the animal attacks, fearing that if word gets out, it'll drive away the amusement park construction project and hurt the city financially. In an unusual take on the trope, when outside help comes anyway--in the form of Ben Zachary--the mayor is the first one to take Ben's side. Because Ben Zachary also wants to deal with the problem as discreetly as possible, for his own reasons.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The creatures are zoological specimens that escaped when the spaceship crashed, and Benjamin Zachary is really an alien sent to destroy them. Also done visually with Ben's real appearance as he looks as hideous as he claimed he'd be to Edie, despite being a good guy.]]

* ScreamingWoman: Actually becomes a plot point. In two separate monster attacks, all the men present are killed, while a woman who screams her head off manages to escape. Ben Zachary theorizes that her high-pitched screams repelled the monster. [[spoiler:He then rigs up some loudspeakers to blast the monster with even higher-pitched sound waves, and that's enough to kill it.]]

* OutrunTheFireball: Low-budget example as Ben and Mayor Wicker have to run from the crashed alien spacecraft before is explodes or, as Cinematic Titanic put it, to get far enough away so they didn't have to show the explosion because they couldn't afford that.
* PoliceAreUseless: Averted. Sheriff Cinder and Pete do everything they can to track down the monsters and the sheriff does everything he can to keep the second monster away from Mary Jane even when his bullets aren't hurting it.
* ScreamingWoman: Actually becomes a plot point. In two separate monster attacks, all the men present are killed, while a woman who screams her head off manages to escape. Ben Zachary theorizes that their high-pitched screams repelled the monster. [[spoiler:He then rigs up some loudspeakers to blast the monster with even higher-pitched sound waves, and that's enough to kill it.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The creatures are zoological specimens that escaped when the spaceship crashed and Benjamin Zachary is really an alien sent to destroy them. Also done visually with Ben's real appearance as he looks as hideous as he claimed he'd be to Edie, despite being a good guy.]]
* TooDumbToLive: The group that decides to hunt down the first monster without knowing anything about it. Ironically, the only survivor is the unarmed girlfriend who everyone else thought would be TheLoad due to her high-pitched scream repelling the monster better than bullets could.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_alien_factor.jpg]]

* WhamLine: "My hunch was right: [[spoiler:There's no one named Benjamin Zachary working at the Garret Observatory]]."

* WhamLine: "My hunch was right: [[spoiler:There's no one named Benjamin Zachary working at the Garret Observatory]]."

* IntrepidReporter: Edie Martin.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Benjamin Zachary.

** Averted for the most part for most of the rest of the victims as they're often taken completely by surprise and have no time to react.

* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Shot at the end by the sheriff.]]

* TooDumbToLive: The group that decides to hunt down the first monster without knowing anything about it. Ironically, the only survivor is the unarmed girlfriend who everyone else would be TheLoad due to her high-pitched scream repelling the monster better than bullets could.

''The Alien Factor'' is a 1978 Sci-Fi/Horror B movie directed by Don Dohler that takes place in rural Maryland where several townspeople are killed off in manners that match nothing the local wild animal population could possibly inflict. After several of these killings, a local astronomer from a nearby observatory investigates what he believed to be a meteor crash that turns out to be the remains of an alien space ship.

* HealingHands: The alien [[spoiler:who becomes Ben Zachary]] healing a woman run over by a drink cyclist.