Alien Raiders

One of the worst things about the Christmas season is the damned music that sparkles from every public music system. But in a supermarket in podunk Buck Lake during the holidays, the background music becomes the last thing on the shoppers’ minds as a vanload of paramilitary toughs roll in and start capping some folks in the aisles … but just some folks. Things can’t get any worse, and then they do as the flick shifts into The Thing Hidden in The Mist. Here, director Ben Rock (part of the original Blair Witch posse) has delivered a surprisingly entertaining throwback to the early ’80s creature features. Rock doesn’t seem to have had much of a budget to work with, but delivers more than satisfactorily with what he had on hand. There’s some sly black humor at work, but the emphasis is on keeping the suspense and intermittent mayhem sustained. This D2DVD sleeper had me at the opening credits (with ironic use of the Siouxsie track, “Into a Swan”) and kept me smiling through the final line.