Spores (2011) Online

It's not every day that you have the chance to watch a low-budgeted "Alien" rip-off from Russia, so when "Spores" premiered at a small but charming festival in my home country, I grabbed the opportunity with both eager hands. And I'm glad to say that it was what it was; a largely insignificant but fun and fast-paced Sci-Fi horror flick with decent gore effects, grotesque monster designs and a couple of darn hot Russian babes running around in minuscule jeans shorts. The film's biggest trump is undoubtedly the unique setting, namely an abandoned and ramshackle factory like I presume there are many in rural Russia. Five youngsters on their way to a camping trip stop at the site, for no particular reason, and go in for some random factory exploring. During the intro, however, we already saw how a nasty dinosaur-type alien claimed the factory as its own personal breeding turf. The teenagers, as well as a handful other innocent passers-by, desperately try to escape from the premises, but obviously the alien invasion doesn't restrict itself to the factory alone… Stuff like this is fun to watch, even though you almost instantly forget about it again. "Spores" features all the delightful B-movie stereotypes (the dork, the brainless hot blond …) and shamelessly copies the most legendary moments of its role-model milestone "Alien", like the discovery of a room full of gooey interstellar eggs about to pop open. For quite a long time, "Spores" just features one type of slimy monster that terrorizes the characters, but never the end there's a whole collection of eccentric and campy monsters running amok in the factory, including aliens that hang from the ceiling like fans and hundreds of small octopus creatures. The death sequences are a combination of bloody and cheesy due to the poor use of CGI, and the two main actresses rival each other on who has the most gorgeous legs, but sadly none of them shows any T&A. What a shame! I read at the festival's online forum that it is writer/director Maksim Dyachuck's intention that "Spores" becomes part one of a trilogy. I am volunteering to watch parts two and three as well!

After deciding to investigate a supposedly abandoned stone mill, a group of friends find the area infested with vicious alien creatures who crash-landed on Earth in meteorites, and must find a way of stopping them before they can escape.

This was actually a far better effort than it should've been, and there's a lot to like about it. One of the more enjoyable aspects is the effective use of the location, which is quite thrilling and seems to be a perfect location to unleash such a film with lots of dark, creepy places to either lurk about in ambush or just a perfect place to spring out unexpectedly from the different hallways or hiding spots within, and by utilizing their surroundings nicely it gives it a little bit of chills from time-to-time. There's even some exciting confrontations spread throughout as well, with their attacks leading to some rather impressive action scenes as they either escape or barricade themselves within, and in doing so offer up some nice gore shots as this is surprisingly bloody at times. There's some dropped momentum with the inclusion of the police-officers on the scene as it drags out the film a little bit getting them introduced, but overall this one is a whole lot of fun and quite enjoyable.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Russian director Maxsim Dyachuk has taken a time honed construct in science fiction and created an important cautionary tale. Those who follow current events and witnessed the shocking video of a meteorite striking violently into Siberia will certainly see the prophetic aspects of this film. The deadly spores on the cinematic meteorite, however, are deadly and it is essential the world take notice of what happens in this incredible motion picture. The Siberian strike in recent years could easily have brought an apocalyptic presence to those who live in the isolated area of Russia and the terror would have been overwhelming. Perhaps we were very lucky or we may just might know yet. With skill and dramatic insight, Maxsim has envisioned what may well of happened if the merciless universe had chosen to destroy humanity. The all-too- possible scenario is expertly filmed and the ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. The Russian location of an abandoned factory is a perfect setting for the story to play out and Maxsim's technical genius with the camera makes for an environment both mesmerizing and horrific. The result is a film that is realistic, inspired, and a disturbing omen of what could easily be.