‘Ejecta’ DVD Review
Stars: Julian Richings, Adam Seybold, Lisa Houle, Mark Gibson, Justin Darmanin, Ry Barrett, Ari Millen, Cat Hostick, Tony Burgess, Jason David Brown, Matt Griffin | Written by Tony Burgess | Directed by Chad Archibald, Matt Wiele
Aliens can be annoying, especially with all the probing and implanting they seem to do. Ejecta features a character that shows just why this is the case, especially if the aliens use the victims head as a radio conductor for their conversations. When people who complain about such things are normally seen as crazy, what happens if they are telling the truth? Then you get a film like Ejecta.
Ejecta focuses on William Cassidy (Julian Richings) who at the beginning of the film is captured by an anonymous group wanting to know the truth about the aliens he says he has encountered. Watching footage found recorded by still missing Joe Sullivan (Adam Seybold) featuring the recent actions of the duo Dr. Tobin (Lisa Houle) tries to find the truth through questioning and some questionable forms of torture. Not finding the truth and becoming frustrated, she has no idea that the very thing she is trying to discover may not be that far away at all.
Ejecta is a film that bugs me, because I like the concept and the actors are do a fine job, it’s just the script that in the end lets them down. An example of this would be down to the torturing of William. The first methods they use make some sense, but they soon find that he survives procedures that should either kill him or leave him comatose and he even asks for more. The problem I have is that they do give more as they don’t get the answers they wanted, and give big speeches about how they are going to make sure it hurts. Some of the lines they use too are comically bad, though this could be argued to be Dr. Tobin trying to play the “bad cop” I suppose. William has already shown that the pain is having little effect, and that he’d rather die…so why keep on trying to scare a person who has already past the point of caring? It lessens the effects of the scenes and sometimes distracts the audience from the actual film itself as they spend time pondering stupid actions and not the more important story elements.
Parts of Ejecta are found footage, and these scenes are used for flashbacks. It’s commendable that these scenes don’t reveal the alien creature in all its glory but tend to show fleeting glances as it does add to the tension of the chase. It is annoying though that the character carrying the character puts his life in danger just so he can collect it, even to the point that its surprising (and unbelievable) that they got away. The use of the found footage style has many traps that can be annoying, the clinging to the camera when your life is in danger and not having a good reason for it is one of them.
These issue could ruin a movie, but Ejecta has a saving grace that really keeps it grounded and that is Julian Richings. I remember Richings as Death in Supernatural and in each episode he starred in he stole the scenes. He seemed to relish the role and his performance was peaceful yet creepy, everything was deliberate and with no waste of energy. With his body language providing the feeling of omnipotence that you would expect from Death. In Ejecta while some of the other actors struggled with the script he manages to make even the silliest of lines work, giving a performance that is memorable for some time after the film has ended. He manages to portray the character of William Cassidy as a man on the edge and truly pitiful, but calm and collected knowing that his fate will soon be revealed. In many ways he saves the movie from itself and keeps the audience engrossed.
Ejecta has its fair share of failures but it also manages to be interesting and keep the audience watching. Julian Richings really is the star of the film and his performance manages to distract from many of the problems with the film. Entertaining but very flawed Ejecta is still worth a watch at least as it’s something different, it’s just a shame that it couldn’t have been done just a little better.
***½ 3.5/5
Ejecta is available on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK now.
