Bobby Sinclaire (Robert Carradine) is a musician and song writer who has been having a bit of a dry spell. He lives in Laurel Canyon with his dog, Frank, not far from the Hollywood sign. Things were slowly getting better but after a not so good day he stops at a bar for a beer. This is where he meets Iris Longacre (Cherie Currie), a bit of a free spirit. Bobby and Iris hit it off and spend the weekend in Mexico.
After they return Iris begins to hear unusual sounds coming from a nearby abandoned government building. She describes the sounds as thoughts but sounding like bats or whales crying. They investigate the building and realize that it is occupied. Bobby and Iris talk to an old prospector, Dan (Keenan Wynn), that hangs out in the area. Dan tells them that the building was constructed in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, and was the headquarters of Western Defense. He says the building goes down into the ground five or six stories. He informs them that he was a mining engineer hired by the government to help build it. He mentions that there are still some air shafts up on the side of the hill. He takes Bobby and Iris to see one of them.
Curious to find out what is going on, Bobby and Iris descend down into the shaft. At the same time, inside the bunker, a surgical team begins dissecting the body of an alien. In the tunnels Iris begins screaming. A security teams finds them. Bobby is put in a cell. Dr. Vernon Cottrell (Eric Morris) realizes that there is something special about Iris. She is taken into a room where there are three cryogenic chambers. Inside each chamber is an alien. The aliens look like bald children. Iris seems to be attuned to the aliens and can understand their thought waves.
Iris learns that the alien’s ship was shot down during the test of a new weapon. Inside were four of the child-like aliens. The government thought they were dead but they were actually in a suspended state. When the doctors that did the autopsy on the first alien begin to get sick and die, the government realizes that there is something about the aliens that is causing the deaths. The government decides that, in order to stop the infection, the aliens, as well as Bobby and Iris, must be buried alive.
“Wavelength” was released in 1983 and was written and directed by Mike Gray. It is a science fiction film. Some people firmly believe that the film was based on a true story. According to the non-profit organization MUFO (Mutual UFO Network) the story is based on events that occurred in 1973 at Hunter Leggett Military reservation in Monterrey County, California. Writer Mark Gray maintains that the story is an original one that he developed without any outside influences.
I really enjoyed this movie. There was eeriness to the film that, along with the music score gave, what might have been a standard plot, an intriguing ethereal feel.
The music was done by Tangerine Dream. Some of the filming was done at Vasquez Rocks. The church scene was filmed at St Monica's Church in Santa Monica, California.
My only complaint is that whoever was responsible for making sure the boom mic wasn’t visible should be fired. It was annoying to see it pop up on screen all the time.