''The Alien Factor'' is a 1978 science fiction

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written, edited, produced, and directed by

Don Dohler Donald Michael Dohler (January 27, 1946 – December 2, 2006) was an American film director known for making low-budget science fiction and horror films, as well as his work in underground comix and publishing.Vanderbilt, Mike"Don Dohler’s Nig ...

. The film centers on a small town that is besieged by three

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

that have crash-landed in the nearby forest. A mysterious stranger named "Ben Zachary" shows up claiming to be able to save the day. Can he do what he claims?

Plot

A spaceship crashes in a sparsely populated area of Earth and three horrific

survive the accident. The grotesque extraterrestrials soon begin to terrorize the local residents, until one intrepid soul named "Ben Zachary" chooses to fight back.

Cast

Don Leifert Donald L. Leifert Jr. (February 27, 1951 – October 23, 2010) was an American sci fi/horror film actor, writer, teacher, and film historian. Early life Leifert was born on February 27, 1951 to Dolores J. and Donald L. Leifert, Sr., and had a siste ...

as Ben Zachary * Tom Griffith as Sheriff Cinder * Richard Dyszel as Mayor Wicker * Mary Mertens as Edie Martin * Richard Geiwitz as Pete * George Stover as Steven * Eleanor Herman as Mary Jane Carter * Anne Frith as Dr. Ruth Sherman Larry Schlechter and John Cosentino starred as the Inferbyce and Zagatile aliens respectively.

Production

''The Alien Factor'' became the directorial debut of

who after working as a payroll manager for a restaurant chain for 12 years moved into film-making after being laid off from his position. The initial script was initially written as a comedy titled ''Lance Sterling, Monster Killer'' which would've called for 15 different monsters to be created, before Dohler and his crew decided it would be more prudent to do a straight horror film with only three monsters. The creature suits for the Inferbyce and Zagtile were built and designed by Larry Schlechter and John Cosentino respectively, while the Leemoid was created through

stop motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

which Ernest D. Farino was responsible for along with the design of the creature using earlier designs by Britt McDonough and Tim Hammell. Filming was done sporadically from October 1976 through April 1977 in and around the

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

area.

Release

Home Media

The film was released on DVD by Retromedia Entertainment on February 26, 2002. Image Entertainment released the film on November 15, 2005 as a part of its Don Dohler Collection. It was last released by Mill Creek Entertainment on July 19, 2011. The movie was very popular on release and garnered much attention from the media, critics and people.

Reception

'' TV Guide'' awarded the film a negative two out of five stars calling it "silly", also writing, "Only the undiscriminating will be able to sit through this one". Dave Sindelar on his film review website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'' criticized the film's acting as "non-existent when it isn’t bad" and direction, which Sindelar equated to being "inspired by Larry Buchanan" and concluded that the film would only be of interest for bad movie fanatics. ''Critical Outcast'' gave the film a negative review writing, "''The Alien Factor'' is undeniably bad, but it does have a certain energy to it, credit for a guy who went out and just did it. I would not really recommend you go out of your way for it. It is not a good movie, just admirable for the conditions under which it was made." '' VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever'' awarded the film one and a half out of four bones, noting that the film had "decent special effects".

Sequels

The film The Alien Factor 2: Alien Rampage was not actually a sequel. Retromedia distributor Fred Olen Ray chose the sequel-sounding title to market the film on DVD in 2002. The original title for ''The Alien Factor 2'' was ''Alien Rampage''. ''Alien Rampage'' was filmed in 1999 and was Don Dohler's comeback movie after an 11-year hiatus from filmmaking.

References

External links

TheAlienFactor.com
– Official site * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alien Factor, The Films about alien invasions American independent films 1978 films 1978 horror films American science fiction horror films Films about extraterrestrial life Films shot in Baltimore 1970s English-language films 1970s science fiction horror films 1970s monster movies 1978 independent films Films directed by Don Dohler 1970s American films 1978 science fiction films English-language science fiction horror films English-language independent films