Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Greydon Clark
Starring: Various veteran actors plus less famous actors like Tarah Nutter & Christopher S. Nelson
From: Heritage Enterprises/World Amusement Company
No chance… no help… no escape
On a whim I decided to see this sci-fi/horror picture I’ve known of for years due to comparisons made to Predator; of course, that is only surface-level in that the villain is an ugly mother****** tall bipedal alien played by Kevin Peter Hall that hunts humans for sport. Instead of Special Opps badasses in Central America, the quarry is some young adults in rural Southern California and veteran actors like Jack Palance & Martin Landau. As I briefly met & chatted w/ Greydon Clark at a con years ago (I wish I’d have seen this then; a question or two would have been asked) about time to discuss one of his B-movies.
It's not fair to compare this w/ Predator as suffice it to say, Without Warning suffers in comparison is under-exaggerating the difference in quality. This is low-budget nonsense which is still enjoyable for those that enjoy such schlock. After all, the alien’s weapon is… best described as flying pancake discs (or omelets, as one mutual proclaimed), only they are creatures w/ teeth that shoot out tentacles once attached to your body. Don’t expect to see the alien hunter in the first or even second act.
The young adult actors are most charitably described as “not always polished”-although one of them was David Caruso, wearing a tiny pair of blue Adidas shorts!-so the presence of many veteran actors (even in glorified cameos, like Cameron Mitchell and Darby Hinton) was an asset. So was the rural setting and the traditional/electronic score from Dan Wyman and especially the cinematography from none other than the legendary Dean Cundey. Without Warning looked nice whether in daylight or during all the nighttime, sometimes foggy scenes.
But of course getting to see Landau as a paranoid military veteran and Palance as an expert hunter were highlights with their more substantial roles than the ones that the likes of Larry Storch (! As a Cub Scout leader) Sue Ann Langdon, Neville Brand and Ralph Meeker (in his final film role!) had. In any event, despite its faults, Without Warning has charm for those that dig the genre.
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