Paul Dean has created a deadly parasite that is now attached to his stomach. He and his female companion, Patricia Welles, must find a way to destroy it while also trying to avoid Ricus, his rednecks, and an evil government agent named Merchant.
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That was an excellent one.
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
My father used to own like a gazillion VHS tapes including 1980s and 1990s bad horror/SF/action flicks that seemed like they were meant to scare very young kids but amuse adults. There was one that was particularly upsetting about a baby crocodile pet being flushed down the toilet by an irate bitter redneck dad and later coming back as a mutated monster (the crocodile, not the dad), growling for an Old Testament-type of revenge which, as a child, makes you scared because of the crocodile's "unaesthetic" appearance but, as a cynical misanthropic adult, you cannot help yourself but root for the crocodile because as any child is often told, what goes around comes around (even if it has to crawl out of the creepy sewers). Parasite is one of those flicks I would expect to find among those tapes.Right off the bat things have gotten wacky super fast and with the initial oh-so-spectacular "3D" saloon fight sequence you just know you are in for a treat. Hilariously contrived action sequences, hilarious pacing, acting, hilariously dull dialogues (Character 1: "Duh, don't open the, uh, container with the biohazard logo thingy on it or you'll, uh, die." Character 2: "Ummmm, shut up!" -proceeds to open the container and dies-) is what you can expect from this hysterically amusing old flick.
Veteran B level filmmaker Charles Band surely must have thought that one way that he could outdo "Alien" was to have a similar "chest burster" type creature come right at the camera. And so he did, with this derivative but fairly amusing low budget monster movie, made during the 3D boom of the early 1980s. The whole "raison d'etre" of this thing is to thrust gore and monsters into the viewers' face, and on that level, this is entertaining trash. The script (by Alan J. Adler, Michael Shoob, and Frank Levering) isn't so hot, but with this kind of diversion, that isn't too important a consideration. With limited means, Band creates a somewhat desolate feel, with a limited number of cast members and use of various isolated rural California locations.Robert Glaudini stars as Paul Dean, a scientist creating parasites for a nefarious organization known as The Merchants. Karma intercedes when he ends up with one inside him, and he flees into the desert, taking assorted items, and the other surviving parasite, with him. But he can't do any research / experiments in peace, because local troublemaking punks, led by Ricus (Luca Bercovici), are always being a nuisance. Fortunately, Paul makes the acquaintance of Patricia Welles (ever lovely Demi Moore, in her first starring role), a young farmer living on her own.The cast is mostly good value. Also present and accounted for are Al Fann as Collins, a diner owner, James Davidson as the villainous Wolf, Tom Villard, Runaways singer Cherie Currie and Joanelle Romero as members of Ricus' gang, and Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith in a cameo. Some viewers may wince at seeing Broadway legend Miss Vivian Blaine (as she is billed) slumming her way through this one. Glaudini is appropriately intense and fidgety, while Moore gets by mostly on looks and likability.Charles' brother Richard Band does the terrific score, while Mac Ahlberg, a very busy man during this decade, does fine work as the D.P. There are some fun 3D moments. The highlight (or low point, as the case might be for some people) is seeing a monster burst through Miss Blaines' face. Stan Winston is one of the creature effects creators; the work here might not be among his best, but just think what he could have done with a bigger budget. The coolest thing in the whole movie, however, has to be the amazing looking car that the villain drives.If you enjoy this sort of thing to begin with, you'll probably like this one, too.Six out of 10.
Overall, my first watch through Parasite left a bitter taste in my mouth. It came free with my Fright Pack: Man's Worst Friends, so I decided to sit through it. The plot is tired, and progresses very slowly. In fact an hour into the feature, I looked at the timer and wondered how it would wrap up in the next 30. One major problem was the lack of 3-D effects. As the tagline state "The first futuristic monster movie in 3-D". That being said some of the gore/jump scenes would have been very fun provided the 3-D effects were present. Monsters would pop out from dark spaces and laser beams would whiz over head in a spectacular Friday night movie shocker display. Expect some scenes of bloody violence which are actually pretty entertaining, and would satisfy the inner gore-hound. Seeing Demi Moore in her first ever movie role is fun. My suggestion is watching it as part of the fright pack set, otherwise spend your money elsewhere. Unless you love horrendous B-movies or a penchant to make your own MST3K movies, catch it on TV.
I thought Demi Moore looked kinda sweet. Otherwise the film was a mess. A silly script and sillier characters. Still, I thought the film was a lot of fun to watch. It had some scary moments. That creature was really lame dripping it's goop all over the place. I agree that when the creature dropped from the ceiling it was kinda scary. When the Merchant finally got his comeuppance, you could clearly see the fire-suit helmet. If a propane tank that size exploded, I doubt if you could find any body pieces. The price of premium gasoline was $40.57. The time setting of the film must have been just a few years into our future.So if you want to watch this film, just sit back and get ready for some laughs. After watching this film I thought I should go into the movie making business. I know I could do a movie just as well in a week's time.