10 Great Sci-Fi Villains Trapped In Terrible Movies

When Sam is abducted by aliens, his wife assumes he had run out on her and their child. When he returns 3 years later, she has a new partner, and his arrival causes disruption in the family. Oh, and another cause of disruption is the fact that Sam is harbouring a gruesome alien parasite which he transmits to his family, ensuing plenty of carnage. There’s that, too.

Far from the worst pick amidst a sea of awful sci-fi B-movies, with an engaging premise and acting which looks award-winning when compared to most others, there is potential here for a unique kitchen sink sci-fi horror.

But Xtro fails as a successful sci-fi horror on two accounts. The sci-fi, and the horror. None of the scientific elements are touched upon, the origin or motivations of the alien are not even considered. And the suspenseful moments and jump scares are equally ineffective, with only a single scene where Sam, a full-size man, bursts out of a woman’s womb providing any real visceral reaction.

What does work, though, is the domestic dynamic at play here. The combination of awkward familial circumstances and the hidden threat of an estranged alien father creates a simultaneously unnerving and intriguing story. This could have been a great psychological horror or sci-fi mystery which plays on the ambiguity between the distrust for Sam’s intentions returning to the family, and the obliviousness to his true danger as an extra-terrestrial attacker. But as it stands, this unnerving villain is not quite able to break through Xtro’s amateurish exoskeleton.