Previously posted on blog and written by B. Demeter
Without Warning (1980) is a mediocre movie that was the inspiration for my #1 movie of all time (and I’m such a freaking idiot that I didn’t make the connection).
The film is about an alien that throws parasitic starfish. God that sounds so stupid… and it is. The effects are cool and lame at the same time. The starfish have tentacles and suckers, and there is sufficient blood and puss; but the effects are old and haven’t aged well. The starfish are all we see of the alien creature for much of the film. In a very Jaws-esque move, the alien reveal is saved for the end of the movie. In a very not Jaws-esque move, the creature is very stupid looking.
For most of the film you are seeing people walking through the woods and unsuspectingly attacked by gross starfish. There are some hunters, a Boy Scout troop, and a group of teenagers. Not surprisingly, we follow the teenagers the most.
The teens are headed out to the lake; which on the dry-erase board of horror movie writing is written in permanent marker. They meet ‘the harbinger’, played wonderfully by the legendary Jack Palance. In order to advance the plot, they disregard his warning and head on to the lake where two are killed and the other two run to get help.
It gets a bit kooky from there because the teens run to a truck stop for help. There they meet a crazy-vet, played by Academy Award winning actor Martin Landau. This confused the hell out of me. This movie already has Jack “Curly” Palance playing this role. Why is there another crazy old guy in this movie? Granted, Palance is playing crazy/good and Landau is playing crazy/chaotic but that still doesn’t mean there has to be two of them.
The movie plods on with two nut jobs like a fantasy football team with Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers and both are moving the plot downfield. Palance is a grizzled hunter type who has dealt with the starfish suckers before and lived. Landau thinks everybody is an alien. It’s bananas!
The alien is keeping the bodies of its victims. I presumed it was for food, but the internet tells me the alien was keeping them as trophies. But that seems stupid to me because they are lame ass trophies. A scout leader, some drunken redneck, and a couple of teenagers would not look good stuffed and hung above a mantle. What alien race would be impressed with that? If this alien’s hunting ability were worth a damn he’d be out in a jungle somewhere, hunting a group of highly skilled mercenaries…
And that’s when it hit me that this movie is the fucking prequel/inspiration for the best damn movie ever made- Predator. Without Warning is just so lame that I couldn’t connect the dots, but the evidence is there. An alien comes to earth and hunts humans in the woods using crazy weaponry and keeps parts of their bodies as mementos. Yup, it’s all there. But don’t put your brain back together just yet because there is more. The guy who wears the shitty alien costume in Without Warning is the same fucking guy who plays the Predator in Predator, Kevin Peter Hall! I am shitting you negative.
Without Warning’s connection to Predator is the reason why I’ll remember this film and the reason why I would suggest watching it. It’s also funny to see Palance and Landau awkwardly play the same type of role in the same film.
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