Ejecta is a 2014 Canadian alien invasion film that I saw on YouTube. I was curious because it's got Julian Richings in it. You might not recognize his name but he's got 174 credits on the IMDb, 13 of which at in 2015. He mostly works on genre stuff, so you might recognize him, if that's the sort of thing you like. I first remember learning his name from the John Woo TV series Once A Thief back in 1997 but I'd already seen him in Maniac Mansion and Naked Lunch. He's currently Death in Supernatural which I don't watch. Ejecta was written by Tony Burgess who wrote Pontypool. It was directed by Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele. I haven't seen any of these guys work and Ejecta isn't going to make me go look for it. It's got an interesting idea at the core but they don't deliver a good film to support it. It gets 3.7 on the IMDb for good reason. It's a documentary type film with lots of shaky cam and background noise, add a layer of music and sound effects to that, and I'm getting pissed off I can't hear what actors are saying.
Julian is a recluse who has a presence on the internet where he posts about his encounters with aliens. He'd first had contact nearly 40 years ago and he believes he's got something inside of his head, something the aliens left there. It's caused him no end of grief over the years. He invites Adam Seybold, another blogger who researches aliens and conspiracy theories, to come visit for a special solar event. The event is special alright; the guys encounter a mean ass alien who chases them in the dark.
That's the alien, he doesn't appear until about 60 minutes into the 90 minute film and that's about as good a shot of him as you are going to get. Julian and Adam escape the alien only to fall into the hands of an even more cruel and horrible monster, that lady up on the right. That's Lisa Houle as Dr. Tobin, she's the leader of a squad of paramilitary guys who are part of a bigger secret group that is searching for aliens and people who encounter them. The group has been going on for over 1200 years, stemming from a man's original encounter. Tobin is a ruthless and horrible bitch, she likes her torture too much and feels nothing when someone dies. When the alien comes she turns into a scared little bitch. Somehow I didn't feel any sorrow when the alien fuck her up good. Sadly that gun won't help her end her nightmare.
The movie jumps about in time and space to tell the story. I don't mind a non-linear story, this one works fairly well, there's just not much story. I'm kind of tired of the secret and ruthless organization that comes in and lords it over everyone. Also annoying is the way the music and sound effects ramps up so loud that the people talking are drowned out. There's way too much shaky cam and night goggle view for me. There's a lot of running about and yelling in scenes so dark you can't see anything. It helps fill time but it's not interesting to watch. The IMDb voters give the movie a 3.9 and I couldn't much disagree with that. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for the most part.
I continued looking for titles on YouTube that I hadn't seen. About halfway through Doomsday I started thinking I had seen it before. I looked it up and sure enough, we'd seen it at a Friday Night Movie night 7 years ago. Here's the post:
From the director of Decent, Neil Marshall, comes Doomsday (2008), an amalgam of story ideas from a host of past genre films. Done intentionally, from a fan for fans. The fans here liked it. It's full of fun and seems to move through time and space with the greatest of ease. Not for examination, it's a movie to roll around in like a dog rolling in the dirt for the sheer enjoyment of it. A plague hits Scotland and the government walls off the country from the rest of the British Isles. The surviving people fall into chaos and eventually turn into cannibals. And not because there isn't meat around. They just like it. It's 30 years after the wall went up and the Plague is back. It's in London and the crappy government sends a team of soldiers into Scotland to try to find out why some of the people there are immune to the virus. It starts out as Escape From New York, complete with a wonderful John Carpenter type score by Tyler Bates, then it turns Mad Max on us for a bit. It even gets medieval on my ass. Malcolm McDowell plays the leader of the medieval society that lives in a castle. He'd abandoned the world, as they had him when they sealed him up with the wall. Turns out he's the science guy they are looking for, but he has no cure. Just natural immunity. One whacky thing after another carries us along and I had a great time. It grisly and there's lots of gore and goo. A guy gets cooked and eaten. Not for the faint hearted, or my mom, but I'll be sure to pick up a copy when it gets cheap at Target. It's fast and fun and I like that.
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