Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Alienator Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 21, 2017

Fred Olen Ray's "Alienator" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Shout Factory. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; raw footage from the shooting of the film; and exclusive new audio commentary with Fred Olen Ray. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

A different kind of Terminator

What makes this recent release of Alienator worth picking up is the inclusion of the brand new audio commentary with director Fred Olen Ray, which is one of the best that I have heard this year. I have never met Fred, but I have listened to him talk about his work on other releases and he is always remarkably honest and very entertaining, which is why the quality of the commentary did not surprise me. Also, I don’t know if a lot of people are aware, but Fred has been around for a long time and knows a lot about the film industry, so he has got a lot of very interesting information to share about other people’s careers and work as well.

I decided to take a look at Alienator for one simple reason: I quite like Jan-Michael Vincent but could not recall ever seeing the film. Well, now I know why. He appears only in a couple of segments in the very beginning and then pops up again towards the end in what is essentially a tiny clip from the same material. The film is also a low-budget stinker -- sorry, Fred, it really is -- so at some point, I must have known that it was and for this reason avoided it at my local video store. In the audio commentary, Fred mentions that the film was done in six days, and all I can add now is that it definitely shows.

The film opens up on a giant intergalactic spaceship of some sort where a supposedly notorious maniac (Jan-Michael Vincent), referred to only as the Commander, and his puppies are getting ready to execute a guy named Kol (Ross Hagen), who is the leader of a large resistance group. When the power system gets jammed up, however, Kol sneaks out and jumps in a tiny shuttle that eventually brings him to America. The Commander then dispatches his top killer, the Alienator (played by the sexy bodybuilder Teagan Clive), to track down Kol and finish off what his people couldn’t do on the spaceship. Meanwhile, Kol gets picked up by some college students who have absolutely no idea that he is a dangerous target.

There are plenty of those well, duh moments that give a lot of Fred’s films their charm, but the quality of the material here is below average. It feels like everyone that was involved with it was instructed that there are only six days to get the job done and then did as much as possible to come up with some sort of a feature film. Fred mentions in the commentary that some of the pyrotechnics were quite elaborate and I would agree, but there is hardly anything else to generate any excitement. What is left is just a string of incredibly predictable situations that very quickly become dull.

There is a very important detail about the current technical presentation of Alienator that you should be aware of, though to be honest I am not entirely convinced that it has a serious impact on the overall quality of the production. In the audio commentary Fred mentions that when the film was transferred at MGM’s labs, someone royally screwed up the day-for-night timing. So essentially there is footage where the action should be taking place at night, as Fred envisioned it, but on the current transfer there is plenty of natural daylight and it looks like it is happening during a late afternoon. Of course, this is how the footage was shot, in daylight, but later on, it should have been adjusted to nighttime so that everything looks as it should. It is a pretty amateurish gaffe that should never ever happen at a major studio like MGM.

Alienator Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fred Olen Ray's Alienator arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Factory.

The technical presentation is very frustrating. Here's why: It is easy to tell that the entire film was remastered because it looks about very healthy. (It is a shame really that MGM did not use an interpositive of some sort to do a similar remaster for Never Too Young to Die). Also, there are absolutely no traces of the type of annoying digital tinkering that has destroyed so many remasters of good catalog titles. Unfortunately, when the film was transferred at MGM someone royally screwed up the day-for-night timing. So as the director confirms in the audio commentary, there are segments in the beginning where the action should take place at night but it does not. This is an amateurish error of the worst kind that basically makes the fact that the film has a lovely organic appearance irrelevant. (It is not the first such error. The recent remaster of Psychomania similarly changes nighttime footage for daylight footage). Depth, clarity, and the overall color grading are also very convincing. Excluding a few dirt specks that were printed, there are no age-related imperfections to report either. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Alienator Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is stable, very clean, and with a proper range of dynamic nuances. I could tell that some of the explosions were shot without much attention to detail, but considering the fact that production was wrapped in six days this isn't surprising. The dialog is always very easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report.

Alienator Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Alienator, which must have been taken from an old VHS release of the film. In English, not subtitled. (5 min, 1080i).

• Behind the Scenes Footage - presented here is vintage footage that was captured on a VHS camcorder during the shooting of Alienator. It was shot by Ralph Langer. (46 min).

• Commentary - this is an outstanding new audio commentary with Fred Olen Ray in which he discusses the short production history of Alienator, the renewed interest in the film, the fact that MGM apparently transferred it incorrectly (see additional comments in the review above), his interactions with a number of cast members, and plenty of other things about the film business and the different ways in which it has evolved.

Alienator Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The one and only reason why you might want to consider adding Alienator to your collection should be the exclusive new audio commentary with Fred Olen Ray. I have listened to the director talk about his work and the film industry on various releases and not only is he an incredibly knowledgeable person -- with plenty of great stories to share about a lot of people from the industry that he knows or has worked with -- but my impressions are that he is also a really cool guy. I must mention that he is probably one of the most honest directors around willing to do these types of commentaries as well. Alienator did not work for me, but there are probably people that would have loved to have a solid Blu-ray release of it. Unfortunately, this release isn't it, though Shout Factory clearly had different plans for it. When the film was transferred at MGM someone did an incredibly silly amateurish error, which is pretty sad really because the new remaster is very healthy.