Save your money for something good and enjoyable

one of my absolute favorites!

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The first thing you need to know about 'Shadowzone' is that it's a blatant rip-off of a dozen other films from the same sci-fi/horror genre. The first that comes to mind is 'Alien,' but there are elements of plenty others in there, too.It doesn't have much of a budget, which is a shame because there is a decent idea buried somewhere in it. What lets it down is that there isn't enough invested in the characters. Every one is a total stereotype and you know who'll be monster-fodder and who's going to make it from the word go.It's about an investigator who does to a top secret military base to investigate the death of a worker. Once there, he finds the scientists are dabbling in doorways to other dimensions (never a recipe for 'happily ever after'). Then, we have a monster who - remains relatively unseen - as it bumps them off, one by one.The acting isn't great, the special effects are stretched and what tension is pretty much directly lifted from Alien (check out the 'motion tracker' type scene which is almost totally taken from the scene in Alien where Ripley observes Dallas while he treks through the vents, plus the music which sounds almost identical).It's not the worst 'monster-munching' movie out there. There are some nice moments here and there, but the overall vibe of 'seen it all before' outweighs what little good is there.

It's always a lot of fun to encounter a horror film with lousy production values and an overall shortage of talent, but simultaneously an incredibly ambitious plot to compensate for all that! "Shadowzone", for example, is a very cheesy and often ineptly accomplished B-horror movie, but you certainly wouldn't think so after reading the plot synopsis! J.S. Cardone, the weird guy who also made the early 80's video-nasty "The Slayer", thought up a complex premise with dream weaves, secret NASA-sponsored medical experiments and alternate dimensions … only to arrive eventually at a movie about a shape-shifting creature stalking and gruesomely killing people in an abandoned subterranean science lab. Dig this: our brain actually protects us when we sleep, because we naturally dream about horrific stuff during our nightly subconscious journey to a parallel dimension. The acclaimed Dr. Van Fleet is working hard to control and regulate this process by isolating the brain instructions. NASA is interested in the experiments, for their astronauts on future missions, but when of Dr. Van Fleet's guinea pigs dies under mysterious circumstances, Captain Hickock is sent in to investigate. When he requests to repeat the modus operandi on another living specimen, a murderous type of shape-shifting creature is unleashed and everyone is trapped down in the hermetically sealed of base. Once the monster is loose, all the pseudo-intelligent mumbo jumbo about alternate dimensions etcetera is thrown overboard and "Shadowzone" becomes an ordinary but nevertheless entertaining little horror flick. This is actually one of my first acquaintances with the works of Full Moon Studios. A friend of mine gradually intends to introduce me to this cheesy B-movie studio's greatest "classics", and I must admit he did a fairly good job starting off with "Shadowzone". The kills are inventive and the make-up effects are enjoyably nasty (there even is a delicious head-explosion). There's some welcome gratuitous nudity and wondrously hammy acting performances from washed-up cult veterans. James Hong stars as the fanatic scientist and Louise Fletcher, the unforgettable Nurse Ratched in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", is awesome as his assistant. The finale is kind of dumb, but hey who's complaining. Good trashy fun from Full Moon.

Surprisingly effective little sci-fi horror flick produced by Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures. Experiments funded by the military has a staggering side-effect when the head scientist, Dr. Van Fleet(James Hong)discovers that an alternate universe exists when a subject is induced into a vast, deep sleep..something sinister lies on the other side and uses the subject as a portal into our world. Everyone within the underground facility are in danger as the being which has found it's way into our dimension is hostile towards those it/they consider a threat. Captain Hickock(David Beecroft)is investigating the mysterious death of a test subject in the underground facility and we can see that the scientists involved with the EDS(Extreme Dream Sleep)are hiding something. Sensing this, Hickock wishes to see the printout results on the corpse and to settle doubts that his death wasn't a result of the sleep experiment..unconvinced of the results, and unpersuaded that Van Fleet's claims of a genetic cerebral hemorrhage as the cause are correct, he wishes to see if another current subject would suffer the exact fate if the sleep levels were the same. In doing this procedure, the current subject is induced into sleep too long and the being from the other universe is able to use him as a gateway into our plain. This puts everyone in peril for the being has the amazing power to shift it's molecular structure and can imitate anything lifted from the thoughts of humans. It travels throughout the facility and must be caught and killed or else..once it attacks Van Fleet who had locked himself in the sleep lab with the being, we realize that it is not exactly friendly.Really neat B-movie cast includes Louise Fletcher as a rather odd scientist(Dr. Erhardt)who finds the being spellbinding, and seems to have been cut off from society a bit too long, and Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as computer specialist/electronics genius Wiley. If you have seen Miguel A. Núñez Jr. in other films, you can just about expect his fate. David Beecroft is your typical hero, an outsider unaccustomed to the way things are in an underground facility isolated from the world he belongs. Through Hickock, Beecroft is a no-nonsense, take-charge kind of character who is realistic and practical when faced with a really difficult situation, which he certainly inherits when searching for the truth regarding the death of a civilian. Frederick Flynn is the tobacco-chewing, easily rattled handyman, Tommy Shivers, who could use a shave, bath, and some manners. He's also really bad at his job, and we see how poorly managed and worse-for-wear the facility is as Hickock inspects the place..pipes often spit steam, water leaks are apparent, and rats are visible in the kitchen area. Affected by earthquakes and hampered by such a small staff, the facility sure could use a make-over. The being itself is a series of monsters, not particularly as scary now due to the advancement in special effects(..or as effective as say Bottin's work in THE THING or Stan Winston's work in PUMPKINHEAD), but effectively grotesque when they pop up on characters..the monkey creature is quite a ghastly creation. I have read about SHADOWZONE's comparison to ALIEN, but the only similarity I noticed was the plot regarding characters roaming the halls and rooms of the facility as the being is somewhere in the vicinity..some attempting to put food together for the long haul with Hickock & Wiley attempting to repair the damaged transformer after the mishap regarding the being's entry into our universe. Shawn Weatherly is scientist Dr. Kidwell, who is so attached to her pet monkey(..a supposed lab animal no longer needed when Van Fleet began to test human subjects)she'll risk her life to find it when it goes missing..the twist regarding her finding a monkey is a doozy. Not as gory or violent as it could've been, probably due to lack of budget(..for a Band production, the film looks great, particularly the underground facility and it's devastated state due to natural and unnatural factors), but director JS Cardone is able to build the dread quite nicely due to the fact that the being could be anywhere and mimic certain things(..this was perhaps what many believe was ripped from THE THING, I guess, because an animal is used by the being to trick characters). Maureen Flaherty and Robbie Rives are the nude test subjects shown frequently in all their glory. Lu Leonard has a funny role as the rather grumpy cook dealing with a rat problem Shivers won't correct due to his procrastination. Hong is entertaining in an all-too-short role as a nervously cautious scientist worried that Hickock might make a discovery that halts the funding of his experiments. The film does feature some questionable decisions by characters who seem to leap before thinking things thru.

Stalwart Captain Hickock (a solid and engaging performance by David Beecroft) is sent to investigate the mysterious death of a member of a dream research project that's conducting experiments in a vast and isolated subterranean lab. Head scientist Dr. Van Fleet (a brief, but cool appearance by the always terrific James Hong) accidentally brings into our world a powerful deadly being with the scary ability to fatally use our worst fears against us. Writer/director J.S. Cardone, who also gave us the terrifically trashy "The Forsaken" and the pleasingly eerie "Wicked Little Things," maintains a snappy pace throughout, stages the genuinely startling shock scenes with considerable harrowing aplomb, and does a deft job of effectively creating a clammy, creepy and downright unsettling nightmarish claustrophobic atmosphere. The strong cast qualifies as another major asset: Louise Fletcher as the mad Dr. Erhardt, Shawn Weatherly as the fetching Dr. Kidwell, Frederick Flynn as hearty computer technician Tommy Shivers, Lu Leonard as gruff cook Ms. Cutter, and Miguel A. Nunez Jr. as abjectly craven, spineless, sniveling janitor Wiley. Karen Grossman's dark, fluid, moody cinematography, Richard Band's supremely shuddery'n'spooky score, and Mark Shostrom's good'n'gruesome make-up f/x are all likewise on the money excellent and impressive. The gory murder set pieces hit the splattery spot with a perfectly grisly bull's eye. As a nice extra bonus, the lovely Maureen Flaherty as a sleeping psychic spends all of her screen time completely in the buff. A really nifty and unjustly neglected little low-budget sci-fi/horror winner.