Without Warning (1980)
What's It About?
A group of kids go out to the woods where they're hunted by a tall alien wielding some kind of sharp-toothed shuriken squids.
Is It Any Good?
Without Warning has a lot going for it. Our alien was designed by Rick Baker, the director of photography is the famous Dean Cundey, and we've got the likes of no less than Jack Palance and Martin Landau in large supporting roles. The premise is basically Predator 7 years before Predator came out, what could go wrong?
From a technical standpoint, nothing ever really does go wrong with the movie. The characters are decently deep, the special effects are solid, even the writing is pretty good, so what could I have to complain about? In a word: pacing. Without Warning starts strong and stays that way for a while but then it decides to bring its remaining stranded kids back to civilization. The subplot with Martin Landau's crazed veteran completely robs the film of momentum and it takes what feels like an interminable amount of time to right that ship. It's also annoying that the alien's only form of threat is the frisbee squids, there appears to be no actual danger from the creature itself at all.
Just go watch Predator, this is more competent than good.
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Watch it.