Vernon (Richard Grieco) and his top-shelf SWAT crew have managed to bust big bad Miguel ‘Hades’ Aguirre (Robert LaSardo)… but lotsa luck gettin’ his beastly buttocks to the hoosegow, as that task is going to be a wee bit of a royal ass-pain ‘cuz blood-crazed aliens have chosen this day to launch an invasion of Earth!
Soon our heroes find themselves playin’ interstellar Assault on Precinct 13 as they plant their asses in a county jail, and while the main impetus may be “Operation: Save Ass”, the fate of the planet may very well be decided this night!
Coming from Michael and Sonny Mahal’s Mahal Empire (who’s flicks Party Bus to Hell and Art of the Dead I gave revoltin’ reviews to here and here), Attack of the Unknown succeeds on a number of levels, chief among them the performances on display.
Grieco, no stranger to tough as balls hero roles, makes Vernon a strong protagonist you can easily root for, and LaSardo is pitch perfect as the wise-ass thorn in Vernon’s side. Their inter-play is fun, and keeps the talky bits engaging while we wait for what we paid our hard earned dough for.
Speaking of that, the aliens presented here are a sweet-as-balls blend of 50’s creature feature goodness with the menace amped-up considerably. As you lot know, I love me some solid monster madness, and this fright flick brings that in spades!
On the downside, there are a a few too many of those aforementioned dialog scenes for my taste… it’s not that they are bad, or not well-executed (just the opposite actually)… but they keep us away from what our horror hound appetites demand… and yours cruelly grows ever more impatient when he isn’t given his recommended daily dose of monster mayhem (and the fact it’s done so well here doesn’t make it easier boils n’ ghouls)… so not really a negative per se…
Bottom line; Attack of the Unknown is a fun alien invasion fright flick/action piece that really satisfies thanks to it’s strong cast and excellent creature effects… slap your putrid peepers on this one cats n’ creeps!
