Review of The Intruder Within

Ridley Scott's magnificent Sci-Fi/horror classic "Alien" spawned (pun intended) a massive amount of rip-offs, most of which are cheesy, sleazy and excessively gory B-movies like "Creature", "Xtro", "Forbidden World" and "Inseminoid". The 1981 "The Intruder Within" is also a blatant "Alien" rip- off, but considering this is a low-budgeted and made for TV production, you shouldn't expect to see any outrageous bloodshed or flamboyant special effects here. Instead, the film relies almost entirely on its fairly unique setting of a highly secluded oil rig somewhere in the middle of a not specifically mentioned ocean (and even if it was specifically mentioned, I must have missed it). The crew of an oil rig of the Zoltran Company is drilling at a very unusual place, and Chief Jake Nevins is beginning to suspect that something isn't kosher. Personally I think it's their own damn fault, because who would want to work for a company with such a sinister name as "Zoltran"? You just know that they're up to no good! Anyways, the geographical engineer on board recovers a few odd and nasty eggs from the sea and a couple of poor suckers die in mysterious circumstances. Turns out Zoltran is looking for a monstrous species that already exterminated humanity once before, millions and millions of years ago, and now they found it! "The Intruder Within" is an admirable effort to bring an atmosphere- driven monster flick, but most of the script is dull and predictable. There are a couple of noteworthy moments of tension, for example the moody opening credits, and the cast members do whatever they can. Deep sea monsters, whether alien or earthly, are a rather unusual topic for TV-movies and director Peter Carter also tries hard to make his film like a regular feature, but many aspects (like music and editing) quickly reveal the television trademarks. Naturally the creature itself doesn't appear on screen until very late in the film, supposedly because it isn't fully grown yet, but even when it briefly and vaguely appears it's all too obviously a crew-member is a cheap rubber suit. Okay entertainment for monster-movie fanatics, but passable for everyone else.