Without Warning (1980)

Director:

Greydon Clark

Writers:

Lyn Freeman (written by) &
Daniel Grodnik (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 November 1980 (France)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

The Alien Terror Is Here On Earth.

Plot:

An alien creature stalks human prey. |

Plot Keywords:

Prey | Alien | Creature | Camping | Swinging Light

Cast

Tarah Nutter	...	Sandy
Christopher S. Nelson	...	Greg
Jack Palance	...	Joe Taylor
Martin Landau	...	Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs
Sue Ane Langdon	...	Aggie
Neville Brand	...	Leo
Cameron Mitchell	...	The Father
Darby Hinton	...	The Son
David Caruso	...	Tom
Lynn Theel	...	Beth
Larry Storch	...	The Scoutmaster
Ralph Meeker	...	Dave
Mark Ness	...	Bill, the Pool Player
Burt Davis	...	Old Man at Bar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kevin Peter Hall	...	The Alien (as Kevin Hall)
Jeffrey Sudzin	...	Ambulance Driver

Also Known As:

Alien Encounters (USA) (working title)
Alien Warning
It Came Without Warning
The Warning

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (1989) | Finland:K-18 (1982) | Australia:R | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Company:

World Amusement Partnership Nr.108

Trivia:

The plot for the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi/action film Predator (1987) also features the same idea of an alien from outer space that hunts humans. The same actor who plays the alien in "Without Warning", Kevin Peter Hall, also plays the Predator.

Quotes:

Joe Taylor: [Talking to Sandy] It's up to you now. When I get that alien to the shack, you push the plunger.
Joe Taylor: [Taylor runs towards the shack; yelling] Alieeeeen, alien, alien, come on.
Joe Taylor: [Taylor reached the shack and sits down against the shack; yelling] Come on Sandy, You've gotta push the plunger.
Joe Taylor: [Sandy pushes the plunger, but the wire is not properly configured] The wire, Sandy, push it.
[Sandy puts the wire on the plunger whilst Taylor falls over against the alien, then Sandy pushes the plunger and then the Shack blows up]

Movie Connections:

References The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

They're coming to take you away!

"Without Warning" is a cheap American b-movie horror from 1980 about the terror striking the beautiful American countryside... some people are brutally killed and mutilated by an unknown stranger, and it's the turn of a bunch of teenagers and war veterans to find out that an illegal alien has landed and is hunting for humans for his horrible collection...

Although this movie shows lots of stereotypes and well-known topics from many horror movies from the 50's to the 70's like "It Came From Outer Space", "The Thing", Jack Arnold and Roger Corman cheapos, "Night of the Living Dead", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Three on a Meathook" and even "Alien" and the new wave of high school slasher movies like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", it's an entertaining and thrilling affair.

There are some old movie veterans like Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Ralph Meeker, Cameron Mitchell and Neville Brand involved with Palance and Landau playing the mad alien hunters, and a young David Caruso in his very first movie role. The alien is played by Afro-American actor Kevin Peter Hall who also played the monster in "Predator 2" (1990). Director Greydon Clark never had a big break-through movie, but photographer Dean Cundey had a big time in the nineties with jobs for "Apollo 13", "Casper", "The Flintstones" and the Spielberg hits "Hook" and "Jurassic Park".

All in all it's a nice midnight movie and a small highlight for fans of seventies' paranoia horror films in the wake of the remakes of old alien, monster and disaster film productions. No more, no less.