I have to confess I came to this film with jaded expectations. I have seen so many alien abduction films that have been utter rubbish I have become rather cynical.

I was then pleasantly, if not, overwhelmingly surprised by Extraterrestrials. Lets start by saying this film is by no means exceptional in any way but what it does, it does well enough to be genuinely entertaining.

The plot is standard fare, aliens encounter young adults in woods, with the usual results. There are some creepy alien scares, combined with enough action to keep you entertained plus a sad love story ending. The special effects are not spectacular but they are certainly not bad either.

The acting is competent too and includes a few well known faces, such as veteran actor Michael Ironside.

Six out of ten from me.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL is a low budget, shot-in-Canada, sci-fi/horror movie about a group of teenagers holidaying at a cabin in the woods when they're interrupted by a UFO and a group of aliens desperate to abduct them. The film was made by the Vicious Brothers, who previously made the ultra-derivative GRAVE ENCOUNTERS, and like that movie this is a very familiar offering that mixes together bits and pieces of horror and sci-fi entertainment from the last few decades. The main source of inspiration seems to be NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which is blatantly copied at times.

It's the film's predictability that works against it in the end; the result is strictly routine and nothing you haven't seen before. The dialogue is completely unmemorable and the actors seem prone to shouting and screaming their lines rather than speaking rationally. After the slow set up, things play out in high tempo and it all becomes pretty wearying. Cast-wise, the only actor of note is the reliably odd Michael Ironside, but he has too little screen time. The rest is a mix of cheap effects, shaky camera-work, and routine plotting.

Sheriff Murphy (Gil Bellows) of Echo Lake investigates the mysterious disappearance of Nancy McPherson from a seeming alien abduction as well as other strange occurrences. April (Brittany Allen) photographs the family cabin for her mother which is being sold. Her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma) joins her along with annoying friend Seth (Jesse Moss),Melanie (Melanie Papalia),and Lex (Anja Savcic). Melanie and April stumble upon their neighbor Travis (Michael Ironside)'s marijuana grow operation. Travis is a vet conspiracy nut. An alien spacecraft crashes in the woods.

This movie seems stuck in B-movie territory. It's definitely set up as such and never gets beyond that. The young actors are not that charismatic. Bellows and Ironside are the two named actors but they are mostly support. Ironside goes a little wacky but nothing is actually funny. The script is lacking. There are some functional special effects which border on respectable. However, there is something missing from the directions and camera work. This is not scary nor particularly thrilling. None of it is that good but it's not the worst thing in the world.