I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Good idea lost in the noise

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Blistering performances.

This was a very smartly written screenplay. A creepy type mystery, drama and thriller with a sci-fi flavor all rolled up into one. Even an occasional humorous line here and there. The cast was pretty large and every single actor did a top notch job. The setting was mainly in a grocery store, and most of it at night. On occasion it was difficult to see details. Now I don't know if that was the quality of the film and camera THEY used, MY device, OR the quality of the copy of the film streaming. The special affects were realistic and not over the top. (Very unusual for a small budgeted, independent film)The camera work was creative, offering a variety of angles and shots, slow motion etc...with a minimum of the shaky hand held camera syndrome that I detest so much used so often now a days. The pacing was just fast enough to keep me interested but full enough to make me feel involved and care about what was happening. The score appropriate and added to the scenes. Editing well done. This is the BEST small budgeted independent no major star movie, I have ever seen.

Judging by the title, the DVD-cover and the year of release, I would normally never even bother to watch this "Alien Raiders"… I'm a huge fan of old alien invasion movies, more particularly from the fifties and the eighties, because they feature crazy chaotic plots, outrageously cheesy special effects and a cast full of washed up B- movie stars. I don't like "new" alien invasion movies because they usually feature imbecilic plots and lousy computer-engineered effects. But a friend advised me to nevertheless check out "Alien Raiders", and I can understand why, because this is definitely one of the more inspired and entertaining low-budget Sci-Fi movies of the past two decades. The film is arguably derivative of the previous year's hit film "The Mist", as it copies the setting as well as a handful of other ideas, but there are plenty of aspects to guarantee an hour and a half of good old-fashioned and action packed Sci-Fi/horror fun. Two days before Christmas, in the sleepy little time of Buck Lake – Arizona, a troop of heavily armed militants invade the cozy Hasting Supermarket shortly before closing time. Everyone assumes they are robbers or terrorists, but in fact they are some kind of violent scientists in search for extraterrestrial parasites that are allegedly present here. The group's well-planned routing goes awry when their paranormal medium (a big-eyed freak that scans people's brains) gets shot and they have to conduct their alien identification tests via old-fashioned and unorthodox methods. Meanwhile, police forces and hostage negotiators gather outside the supermarket. What I like most about "Alien Raiders" is that it's 100% unpretentious and straightforward. It's clear that director Ben Rock and his crew don't aim to win any originality prices or cinematography Oscars, but at least everyone who was involved in this production does their job professionally. The acting performances are more than decent, without any big names in the cast list, and there are a couple of nicely gooey make-up effects and nasty slaughters. The last 10-15 minutes are rather dull, predictable and disappointing

I feel that I should first point out that I enjoy watching a lot of low budget direct to DVD movies, so I thought that "Alien Raiders" would have a lot to enjoy. However, I have to admit that I was preparing to write this negative review a long time before the movie reached its end. The movie is extremely confusing - it's not made clear where the gun-wielding hostage takers came from, what they know and how they know what they know. These characters, as well as most of the protagonists, are extremely grating and annoying, making it hard to care what happens to them. If you are looking for gore and monster action, there's not much of that stuff here. Further adding to the problems is that the cinematography makes the movie look cheaper and cruder than it actually is. About the only praise I can give this movie is that they managed to shoot in an actual supermarket, which helps, but only a little.

I think another reviewer got it right when he said a lot of these positive reviews sound like they were written by cast and crew. Many of these enthusiastic reviews sounded like the boilerplate you would read on the back of the DVD box when checking out the movie at the local video store.Anyway, the movie seems promising at first and has good suspense and mystery to begin with. I agree with previous reviewers that the beginning and set up of the plot is the best thing this movie has to offer. Once the movie gets completely underway, it loses a lot of appeal and slowly becomes more and more mediocre. Eventually the movie becomes a total bore and then is ruined by an ending that is super unoriginal and dumb. The ending also makes you wonder why you watched this movie in the first place, yes, its that bad.I'll be generous like the previous reviewer and give it a middling 5 score, and only because the first part is pretty good.