THE RECALL
Canada, 2017, 90 minutes, Colour.
Wesley Snipes, RJ Mitte, Jedediah Goodacre, Laura Bilgeri, Niko Pepaj, Hannah Rose May, Scott Nettleton.
Directed by Mauro Borelli.
There has been a long interest in alien invasions from the time of War of the Worlds. There were small budget features in the 1950s, but becoming bigger and films more ambitious during the 1970s, especially with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, there were many films with antagonistic aliens. Probably the most popular of these was the 1985 thriller, Predator, which had a sequel, a spin-off with Jason versus Predator, and a 2018 thriller bringing the issues into the present.
This is a Canadian film, initially showing disasters in space, the officials supervising the disaster, the coming of a gigantic storm, the experience of the aliens and their taking people into the spacecraft and returning them to earth.
The film focuses on Wesley Snipes as someone who had experienced the aliens in the 1990s and has survived in the woods as a Hunter, preparing for the time to confront the aliens and get his revenge. Into this world come a group of teenagers who look as if they were going on one of those camps in the Friday the 13th horror films. They are caught up in all the action, affected by the aliens, fearing the Hunter but then helped by him, eventually taken up into the spacecraft and returned – two of them surviving to go into the forest like the Hunter (and potential sequels).
The story was created and directed by Mauro Borelli who had a long career as a member of the arts departments of action films.
1. An alien invasion thriller? The long tradition? Close Encounters? And the Predator variations?
2. Canadian production? The forest locations? The holiday huts? Space? Official monitoring headquarters? The musical score?
3. Theories about aliens, wanting to take out the humans, hybridisation? The visits, the spaceships, the vast storms? Beaming up characters into the spacecraft? The interiors of the spacecraft? The visualising of the aliens? The red jellyfish style? The parallel with human characteristics and structures? The plausibility of the plot?
4. The opening information, space, the accident, deaths? The scenes with the supervision, the screens, the equipment, calling in survivors? The prediction of the storm and the vastness of the storm? The effect on humans of the alien influence? The red lights, the creatures, the invasion?
5. The presentation of the Hunter, the Wesley Snipes type character, his story of his past, space exploration, being taken by the aliens, the experience, the recovery of memory, his going into the woods, surviving to fight them? His threats to the young people? Their learning his reputation, his equipment in his hut? His life as a hunter, as a survivor? His helping the young man caught in the trap? The young people in his hut, their wanting to escape but his warnings? His capturing the alien, shooting, bringing the creature into his hut to? His letting the young people go? welcoming the couple into the forest at the end?
6. The young people, reminiscent of the group going on holidays in such films as Friday the 13th? Their interactions, the service station, going into the woods? At the hut? The relationships? At the service station? In the woods? Television news, the reaction to the storm, the young woman and her being affected by the aliens? Elated death? The encounter with the Hunter?
7. The threats, the aliens, the years, the young man being struck down, reviving? The young man and his foot caught in the trap? Being helped by the Hunter? The young couple in the hut, interactions, telling their stories, wanting to escape, the warnings from the Hunter, going to the boat, the girl being attacked, drawn into the spacecraft with the young man?
8. In the spacecraft, the strange experience, the visuals, but escaping but their all being landed back on earth? The paralleling experience with the Hunter, no memories, gradual recognition?
9. The space monitors, the roundup of all those who had been affected, the military roadblocks – the young people, confrontation with the military, the guns, deaths, the role of the Hunter? Two deaths on the road, the young couple going into the woods to parallel the life of the Hunter until the alien return?
