April has a problem. She thought she was going to her family cabin in Echo Lake with her boyfriend Kyle for a quiet, romantic weekend before the cabin is sold. The problem is, Kyle invited his friend Seth, Seth's girlfriend Lex, and Lex's friend Melanie to come with them and party. It will be difficult enough for April to get the real estate pictures taken before the cabin is sold without three hangers-on to deal with.
Sheriff Murphy has a problem. Echo Lake has been subject to a series of troubling phenomena, including disappearances, vandalism, and animal mutilations of late. He doesn't want to have to deal with yet another carload of stupid kids visiting the area and thinking they can do whatever they like.
When an alien spacecraft crashes in the woods outside the cabin occupied by April and her friends, their weekend of partying is going to become a nightmare for everybody concerned...
Extraterrestrial (2014) is a science fiction horror film directed by Colin Minihan, starring Brittany Allen, Freddie Stroma, Melanie Papalia, Gil Bellows, and Michael Ironside. It is the third movie by The Vicious Brothers, after Grave Encounters and Grave Encounters 2
Not to be confused with the Spanish film Extraterrestre or the Speculative Documentary Extraterrestrial (2005).
This film contains examples of:
- Alien Blood: The alien apparently bleeds black.
- Anal Probing: Discussed Trope: Mitchell's partner asks (mockingly) if Seth got anal probed. Seth replies that it was Lex that got taken not him. Later, when Seth does get abducted, he is duly anal probed.
- An Arm and a Leg: Seth tries to avoid being abducted by cuffing himself to a tree. He is taken anyway, but his arm is severed mid-forearm and the hand thus left behind.
- Berserk Board Barricade: The main group tries to barricade themselves in the cabin by boarding up the windows and doors.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Melanie is so terrified of being abducted that she overdoses on her (unspecified) prescription pills.
- Closed Circle: After things start to get hairy, they discover a fallen tree across the only road back into town.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Travis, a Shell-Shocked Veteran friend of April's dad, who has a pot farm in the area and lives as far off the grid as he can. He is a cynical, distrustful person who relates to the young people how the government had long ago made a treaty with aliens allowing the abductions of many people so they could experiment on them. All of this turns out to be true, although Kyle dismisses it at the time.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: "Clean" is relative here, as both April and Kyle are covered in goo, but April's efforts do revive him.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The aliens return April and Kyle, and they affirm their love for each other — only to be shot to death and their bodies cremated as part of a government cover-up of the alien abductions.
- Creepy Basement: Of course that's where the breakers are, forcing someone to head down after the power goes out.
- Empathic Environment: A storm hits just after they find the crashed UFO.
- Establishing Character Moment: Seth is summed up within the first ten seconds of his introduction, talking like Jay from The View Askewniverse. He later sets off a Roman candle inside the car, shooting it out the sunroof.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Rusty starts barking at something while April and Mel are taking him for a walk.
- Expy: The government agent overseeing the cleanup of the alien activity bears a striking resemblance to the Cigarette-Smoking Man from The X-Files.
- Final Girl:
- April come as this for most of the movie and it look like she does make until the end along with Kyle, but they both are killed by the army.
- Somehow played straight with minor character Nancy McPherson, who is taken by aliens, but is returned back to earth. She is also the Sole Survivor character in the entire movie, but she stops appearing after the first movie half.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Seth. He is an unrepentant douchebag for the entire movie and is perfectly fine with letting the aliens have April, since she shot one of them. Kyle lampshades this: "I can see why you didn't want him to come."
- Gilligan Cut:
- Kyle berates Seth for setting off a Roman candle out the sunroof. Seth protests that there's nobody else on the road. The next shot is them getting pulled over by Sheriff Murphy.
- April assures the others that Travis is a friend. The very next shot is Travis holding a hunting knife to Seth's throat.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kyle is fully prepared to make one in order to ensure that April and Melanie survive.
- I Come in Peace: Averted, as the aliens are out for revenge. Travis lampshades this as he gets ready to defends his property:Travis: 'Come in peace', my ass.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: April tries to show Sheriff Mitchell the alien she shot that fell in the pool, only to find it has disappeared. Kyle thinks it was Not Quite Dead.
- Kick the Dog: Sheriff Mitchell finds Rusty disemboweled (but still barely alive) in a barn near the cabin. It is implied the aliens did it.
- Lightning Reveal: Just after they determine the intruder is no longer in the cabin, a flash of thunder lights up a gangly shape standing outside the window just behind April.
- Male Gaze: The very first shot of April is her panty-clad butt.
- Mirror Scare: Not the usual sort, though — an alien smashes through the bathroom mirror to grab Kyle.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: April shoots one of the aliens, inadvertently breaking a (theorized) treaty and driving them to seek revenge.
- Prison Rape: Mitchell's partner seems to take particular glee in threatening Seth with a very active social life in prison.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: This seems to be Mitchell's fate. When faced with one of the aliens reaching out to him, he picks up the shotgun in the patrol car, shoots his partner, and then shoots himself.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Sheriff Murphy just wants to get to the bottom of the weird phenomena and keep vicatationers from tearing up the woods.
- Scary Scarecrows: April and Mel encounter one made with a rubber Richard Nixon mask.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The entire band of friends when they discover they just shot an alien. They don't get far.
- Sensor Suspense: Travis's sonar alerts the group that aliens are coming to get them.
- Shout-Out:
- The woman abducted in the opening scene has the last name MacPherson, according to the ID in her wallet, in reference to the Found Footage Film Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.
- April has a pirated copy of Grave Encounters on her MacBook.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Seth. He drops the most F-bombs of any character in the movie.
- Sole Survivor: Nancy McPherson, is the only person who is returned back to earth after her abduction. But she disappears after first half of the movie.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The Cruel Twist Ending is overlaid with the updeat Christian song "Spirit in the Sky'' sung by Elton John about going to Heaven and being with Jesus.
- Too Dumb to Live: When the group discovers a UFO hovering over their disabled car, Lex gets out of the car and wanders out while everyone is screaming at her to get back in. She's the first to get abducted.
