NateWatchesCoolMovies
What do you get if you cross Rosemary's Baby with The X Files? 1998's Progeny, or something like it anyway. Surprisingly thoughtful, restrained and adept for a B movie, it's got a tightly wound little story about a human woman (Jillian McWhirter) who is impregnated by extraterrestrials that are tinkering around with our biology for who knows why. Her husband (Arnold 'Imhotep' Vosloo) is at a loss and doesn't know where to turn as her condition gets progressively more… icky. Help comes in the form of two kindly doctors (Lindsay Crouse and Wilford 'Diabeetus' Brimley) and a UFO-ologist played by an unusually laid back Brad Dourif, but will their collective effort be enough to save her life, remove whatever being is in her womb and escape the attention of the aliens for good? Browsing the shelves this looks like a full on schlock-fest based on the cast and general vibe, but it's something a bit more tasteful that takes itself just seriously enough to separate it from the mass of junk in this arena. Don't get me wrong, there's some slick scares and a few gooey wtf moments, but they're used with a modicum of discretion and as such feel earned, always taking a backseat to the actors who give the human drama weight. Great little forgotten sci-if/horror.
Gareth Owen
Arnold Vosloo plays Craig Burton, a doctor who when making love to his wife one night experiences an "alien abduction" and begins to suspect that his wife (Jillian McWhirter) who became pregnant on that night is really carrying an alien baby, and he goes to great lengths to prevent the alien baby from coming to term ending up with him hacking her to pieces trying to get the alien out.That's it. I've summarized the whole film, and now you don't need to see it. Why? It's possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. The acting is some of the worst I've ever seen, with Vosloo putting in a one-note, flat performance that evokes Tommy Wiseau, and the supporting cast hamming it up in an attempt to be emotional but just coming off as plain funny. The special effects are hilarious. When the "grey aliens" turn up, they look like unconvincing rubber blow up dolls being waved around, and the "alien experimentation" scene where McWhirter is impregnated by aliens is laughable as she writhes around screaming among a bunch of fake looking "alien tentacles". Also, Vosloo being "floated off" his wife in bed is done in a really daft way, and just adds to the naffness of the whole thing. I watched it to the end and derived some amusement from the poor acting and special effects, but this is not one of those "so bad it's good" films, it's just bad. For a better "alien abduction" film try CBS's 1991 miniseries Intruders, the bizarre Christopher Walken flick Communion or find the alien abduction flashback sequence from Fire in the Sky online, all of which offer better special effects, a better plot line (in the case of the Fire in the Sky alien sequence, a ten minute scene is better than 70 mins of this) and are just better entertainment.Vosloo went on to become Imhotep in The Mummy, which mostly just required him to grin in an evil manner and let the CGI do the acting which was a marked improvement over his performance in this film. I think Lindsay Crouse, who plays Vosloo's shrink, went on to have some minor bit parts in some TV series, and the rest of them appear to have gone on to have small parts in direct-to-video horror and action films that populate the bargain buckets of the country's supermarkets.Avoid.
MrBark
First, let me review the movie. This movie creeps me out, and I don't even believe in aliens! However, the movie has its flaws.There are three acts to this movie. Act One is perfect. It sets up the movie, and really builds up the creep factor. I must say the score is great! Everything is set up and it's set up perfectly.Act Two begins when Jillian, playing Sherry Burton, goes to the shrink. They hypnotize her, and she recalls the abduction. Act Two ruins the film when the aliens show up. "Screaming Mad George" did the effects for the aliens. I must say they did a good job, except with their depiction of the "Gray" aliens. No offense, but the Grays looked like inflatable door prizes.On a side note, I liked how they treated hypnosis in Acts One and Two. If you paid attention, you would notice that the husband and wife had two different memories. In the husband's version of events, the blue light zaps them and his wife says, "Somebody's here," or something like it. It makes sense. The husband is concerned for his wife. "Someone" may hurt her. That's his issue. However in her version of events, she says, "Help me!" She does not say "Somebody's here." This also makes sense. The aliens are after her. Wanting her husband to help and save her is her issue. Now back to the film.Act Three turns the film into a gore fest. It begins with a "strange" ultrasound procedure. It's a typical gore fest, but it does have a surprise ending. I won't ruin it because it's actually an interesting development.
The DVD and commentaries takes itself too seriously, but if you think Wilford Brimley saying "Horsesh**" is funny, you might want to check it out in the cast interviews section. Now on to my praise of Jillian McWhirter.I could only hope Jillian will read this. I had never seen her before, but wow, what a performance! Let me tell the rest of you this. First of all, this is supposed to be a serious film. The details I will now describe may sound campy and fun, like "Humanoids From The Deep" (1980), but it really isn't. Got that? Okay.Jillian is hot, naturally good-looking. She is naked for a lot of the film, a good thing. Unfortunately, she is usually being assaulted, terrorized, and raped, a very bad thing. However, she must act in a lot of this film naked. She gets points for overcoming that. She has to act happy, sad, horny, afraid, and physically hurt all in the span of a few moments. The turnaround of emotion is astounding! She has to cheer for joy when she learns she's pregnant. She has to scream in terror when the aliens take out her guts. She has to act very angry when her husband suggests that the baby isn't his. She has to act like she's in denial, saying nothing is wrong with her baby, when her husband says otherwise. A denial, I should note, that is really forced upon her by the aliens controlling her. I am talking Oscar-caliber performance here!Then there is the rape scene. It's disturbing, but since it's just some rubber alien, it's not too bad. In this scene, the alien is not a "Gray" alien, so I will describe it. The alien has tentacles, and it's kind of like a table. Jillian is on the table-like part, restrained by the tentacles. By her head is the alien's head. The alien's head is long, and it flips down so that its head is now above Jillian's legs. Then, the alien's hey-nanu-nanu comes out of his forehead. It's forehead! Sounds pretty campy, right? Well, Jillian plays it straight, and she pulls it off! She has to act like an alien with its hey-nanu-nanu coming from its forehead is raping her, and she pulls it off! It's a very intense scene, but that's not what makes it. You see, this scene is done in a flashback. What makes the scene is Jillian's performance recalling these events. She is just lying in a hospital bed under hypnosis recalling the alien abduction, but her acting here is more intense than the actual rape scene! How many actors can pull off a performance in a scene that describes a rape that is more intense than the scene with the rape? Not many! However, Jillian does it.I could go on and on. Jillian, if you ever read this, I want you to know that I, (name withheld) alias of MegamanX-1, believe you are the best actress ever. You are the best actress ever! I could only hope you read this and take it with you always.As for everyone else, "Progeny" (1999) is an Okay to Good film. I would recommend it.
