‘Final Recall’ VOD Review
Stars: Wesley Snipes, RJ Mitte, Jedidiah Goodacre, Laura Bilgeri, Niko Pepaj, Hannah Rose May, Scott Nettleton, Sean Millington | Written by Reggie Keyohara III, Mauro Borrelli, Teddy Wynne, Sam Acton King | Directed by Mauro Borrelli
A group of friends are spending the weekend at a cabin on the lake while, unbeknownst to them, aliens have begun to attack planet Earth. A number of the friends are abducted immediately by the ship hovering above, and the remaining two of the group, Annie and Charlie, must rely on an eccentric and dangerous hunter who seems to have special knowledge of the attack, explaining that this day has been prophesized for years and extraterrestrials have been guiding Earth’s evolution in preparation for their ultimate takeover.
Billed as Wesley Snipes’ first leading role since 2012’s godawful horror western Gallowwalkers, Final Recall is not so much a star vehicle for the former Blade actor, but more him stepping his toes back into the filmic waters, in a role that is more extended cameo than lead. Instead at the heart of this tale are the group of teens, you know the ones: the usual stereotypes of the nice guy, the horny ones, the virgin, etc. Only here they’re not set to be the victims of some mindless slasher – which is what you’d think given the cliched way in which the characters and the location is set up.
But no, there’s no serial-killing madman here. This time it’s aliens from another planet, seemingly abducting folk in the woods under cover of night… Which doesn’t really make this any more interesting or exciting than your usual slasher movie to be honest.
Final Recall‘s alien invasion starts off interesting enough – the worlds weather changes and giant spaceships come out of the sky before depositing aliens across the globe. Including the woods in which of motley band of teens – and Wesley Snipes former astronaut turned hunter – are residing. Of course Snipe’s hunter is there because he knows there’s a new invasion about to happen… and he’s been waiting to get his revenge for his alien abduction for years. Only is he really? There’s a rather ambiguous ending to the film that would suggest that whilst Snipes’ hunter wants to kill the aliens (one of which he hangs on his cabin wall), he also has another agenda. Though to be fair either I missed a key part of the plot or that ending was just a badly plotted finale to a movie that is packed with plot strands and story beats taken from a myriad of other movies.
Obviously shot on a meagre budget, Final Recall makes the most of the money it did have. The setting are suitably creepy, the scenes on the alien craft, whilst very Matrix-like are unexpected and suitably creepy: with bio-mechanical aspects that look like a cross between Alien‘s Ash and the plug-in world of The Matrix; and then there’s the aliens themselves – odd greys that have the physique of Ridley Scott’s Alien and the face of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” it is – ultimately – their character design which provides the films interest, even without saying a word these fearsome foes are easily the most intriguing aspect of the movie.
Packed with cliches and stereotypes, Final Recall isn’t going to win any points for originality but at least the film doesn’t outstay its welcome and provides some decent visuals – even if the story doesn’t hold up come the conclusion… Hey, at least it’s not another Gallowwalkers!
Final Recall is released on VOD on August 14th, the film comes to DVD and Blu-ray on August 21st, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
