In 1979 the space station Skylab crashed to Earth when its orbit decayed.  The lab was recovered by NASA in Duarte, Spain.  Aboard was a virus that acts as a parasite on human hosts.  Five years later the alien parasitical organism gets loose and begins to attack nearby livestock.  Soon wild dogs begin eating at a carcass.  One dog gets pulled in by the alien parasite. 

Traveling toward Duarte in their camper, pulling a dune buddy, are three friends, Damon (Dennis Christopher), Michael (Martin Hewitt) and Samantha (Sam) (Lynn-Holly Johnson).  Michael swerves to avoid hitting the carcass and a dog.  It results in damage to the camper.  They pull over for the night.  They head to the nearest town, Duarte, in the morning to get parts to make repairs.  In town they find that the people are acting a lot more than strange.  They are acting insane and almost homicidal.  Finding everything creepy they leave and head back to the camper.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tracer (Luis Mendes) arrives for a meeting with Captain Wells (J.O. Bosso).  Wells takes Tracer to see his predecessor who is in a hotel room with a parasite on his face.  Tracer takes Wells to a hidden NASA facility that was established in the ruins of an old castle.  Inside the castle is a high-tech control room.  Five stories down is a canister containing the original virus.  Tracer plans on developing a cure for the alien virus using Wells.  When Wells realizes that he is contaminated he commits suicide.  Tracer must find another host to develop the vaccine.

Sam has an argument with Damon and Michael.  She takes the dune buggy and goes into town to do some grocery shopping.  Tracer finds her there, and basically kidnaps her.  Michael and Damon hear Sam and Tracer on the dune buggy’s C B radio and race to town to try to save her.  At the local hotel, Tracer tries to contact the American government to warn them about the virus.  Sam tries to escape but runs into one of the parasites.  When Michael and Damon meet up with Tracer and Sam, he tells them about the parasite and explains to them that the incubation period is 48 hours.  He stresses the need for the canister of virus that is still in the hidden facility.  With it he can develop a cure, but there isn’t much time before the U.S. sends jets to blanket the town with napalm.         

“The Falling” AKA “Alien Predator” AKA “Alien Predators” AKA “Mutant 2” was released in 1986 and was directed by Deran Sarafian.  It is a low budget Spanish American science fiction horror movie.  The film only had a limited release.

It’s not a bad little movie but it does have some drawbacks.  There is some padding and a subplot between the three friends that gets a little tedious.  Some of the standard horror and science fiction tropes are present.  The plot is a little complicated and somewhat involved so it’s not always easy to follow.  Despite these issues the movie is surprisingly good. 

The special effects are, for the most part, good and varied.  There are face parasites, body-bursters, cattle creatures, squishy shivering blobs and toothy, multi-legged alien things.  All of them sufficiently bloody.  The diversity of the alien creatures adds a lot of creep value to the movie.  Toss in some squishy alien sounds and it makes for a first-rate science fiction film.

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