This is a sort of zombies meet aliens film which made very little sense. I debated bailing after 10 minutes, but I kept think it would improve - it didn't. The characters were totally flat and lacked credibility. Technically this had nothing to do with Area 51 save for a intro shot of Groom Lake (it wasn't - you can see high tension power lines on the horizon).
21 Reviews
One bad apple
james-97125 February 2018
I watched The Making of Alien Domicile before watching the actual movie. As an Indie Film maker myself, I like to see what other's come up with no matter how bad the reviews are. This one has some terrible reviews.
Surprisingly, this movie has many very good elements going for it; The cinematography at times is as good as it gets. The camera work, lighting, and composition at time does truly stand out. Very good work.
The acting is, for the most part, believable. Considering what the cast was given to work with, I think they all gave very good performances.
The musical score is on par with most indie films. Nothing special here but good enough to not be bad.
The sound seemed good enough. Nothing stood out as being bad,, and that's a good thing.
Now, here is where the movie fails. It's a typical story that is played out over and over again in the world of indie film making. It seems to almost always happen that there is one guy on in the production who thinks he has skill and talent to do certain critical jobs just because he is probably the guy who put up the money. It's the guy who thinks he wrote a compelling story simply because he wrote it and will be paying to make the film. It's the guy who edits a movie just because he thinks he can without ever considering that editing is more than just stringing the shots together. ,,, and it's the guy who thinks he has the ability to direct a movie set while telling a story and giving reason to the actors only because, again, he is the one paying to make the movie... In the case of Alien Domicile, that person is Kelley Schwartz. He ruined his own film by thinking he had the talent to handle most of critical creative elements himself. My complements to him for putting together a talented cast and crew. They did not let the production down. It's just too bad that he did. In my opinion, his lack of skill and talent let them all down. As a said, it's the very common story of one man's ego getting in the way of what could otherwise have been a movie worth watching and, for the cast and crew, a movie worth being a part of..... I could see what he was trying to do... It's just too bad he didn't have the chop to pull it off.
I want to also mention the special make up effects. In my opinion, the alien in the movie is well designed and constructed. I was impressed when I first saw the actor wearing the suit in the behind the scenes documentary. Nicely done. It's just too bad that the director didn't know how to shoot a man in a rubber suit. He exposed too much of it and he chose bad camera angles. In the end, it ended up looking like a guy in a rubber monster suit.. If he would have allowed the DP to do his job and if he had a good editor (instead of himself) then the alien would have been something memorable.
I recommend this movie to other indie film makers only as a case study. To the average audience member, sorry, but you probably won't like this one.
Surprisingly, this movie has many very good elements going for it; The cinematography at times is as good as it gets. The camera work, lighting, and composition at time does truly stand out. Very good work.
The acting is, for the most part, believable. Considering what the cast was given to work with, I think they all gave very good performances.
The musical score is on par with most indie films. Nothing special here but good enough to not be bad.
The sound seemed good enough. Nothing stood out as being bad,, and that's a good thing.
Now, here is where the movie fails. It's a typical story that is played out over and over again in the world of indie film making. It seems to almost always happen that there is one guy on in the production who thinks he has skill and talent to do certain critical jobs just because he is probably the guy who put up the money. It's the guy who thinks he wrote a compelling story simply because he wrote it and will be paying to make the film. It's the guy who edits a movie just because he thinks he can without ever considering that editing is more than just stringing the shots together. ,,, and it's the guy who thinks he has the ability to direct a movie set while telling a story and giving reason to the actors only because, again, he is the one paying to make the movie... In the case of Alien Domicile, that person is Kelley Schwartz. He ruined his own film by thinking he had the talent to handle most of critical creative elements himself. My complements to him for putting together a talented cast and crew. They did not let the production down. It's just too bad that he did. In my opinion, his lack of skill and talent let them all down. As a said, it's the very common story of one man's ego getting in the way of what could otherwise have been a movie worth watching and, for the cast and crew, a movie worth being a part of..... I could see what he was trying to do... It's just too bad he didn't have the chop to pull it off.
I want to also mention the special make up effects. In my opinion, the alien in the movie is well designed and constructed. I was impressed when I first saw the actor wearing the suit in the behind the scenes documentary. Nicely done. It's just too bad that the director didn't know how to shoot a man in a rubber suit. He exposed too much of it and he chose bad camera angles. In the end, it ended up looking like a guy in a rubber monster suit.. If he would have allowed the DP to do his job and if he had a good editor (instead of himself) then the alien would have been something memorable.
I recommend this movie to other indie film makers only as a case study. To the average audience member, sorry, but you probably won't like this one.
My back hurts
nogodnomasters15 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The film opens in Groom Lake, Nevada at an underground plant at an Airforce base with a squad hunting an...? with the proverbial woman being dragged across the floor because we have never seen that in a film before. Our subplot consists of four people in a room not knowing how they got there. Soon a fifth person joins them. and we find out "it" wants to evolve, although all we get are scenes of metamorphosis, not really evolution and I wonder if the author knows the difference or is just tossing terms around that he learned in the fifth grade.
Of course evolution means growling, losing all control of speech, growing huge fangs and killing for the sake of killing. I am not sure how that works either. We eventually discover that kicking them while wearing sneakers is more effective than wearing military issue boots and a small knife hurts them more than automatic weapons. The sound track grew annoying like a made-for-TV sound track that was played too loud. I never understood the old fashion music that was playing, other than it is creepy in slasher films, so why not? Lights for eyes? Seriously? I thought special effects has gone beyond that. That is at the level of a voice distorter.
The characters were not well developed and the plot which they wanted to keep a mystery remained a mystery and was that a time distortion scene? As of this writing, no awards, no nominations. It is that good.
Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
Of course evolution means growling, losing all control of speech, growing huge fangs and killing for the sake of killing. I am not sure how that works either. We eventually discover that kicking them while wearing sneakers is more effective than wearing military issue boots and a small knife hurts them more than automatic weapons. The sound track grew annoying like a made-for-TV sound track that was played too loud. I never understood the old fashion music that was playing, other than it is creepy in slasher films, so why not? Lights for eyes? Seriously? I thought special effects has gone beyond that. That is at the level of a voice distorter.
The characters were not well developed and the plot which they wanted to keep a mystery remained a mystery and was that a time distortion scene? As of this writing, no awards, no nominations. It is that good.
Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
Half a movie, at best
phenomynouss4 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This film is 1 hour and 15 minutes according to the run time. Being generous and understanding, this is not a complete film. Almost nothing is explained, and things happen with absolutely no dramatic impact and no clue as to what is even happening.
Being more realistic, this feels like a summary of a film with all the dialogue written, and then directed by an AI as best as its confused little processor can manage.
The film starts with a random assortment of people carrying assault rifles and no helmets in some gray-and-brown looking facility just walking around. Then they apparently get attacked.
Then we get thrown into a room with a bunch of people who all seem to know or suspect what is happening and where they are but don't say what it is or where they are. At no point in the film was this ever explained or shown in any way to this point.
For unclear reasons, the elderly black man keeps picking a fight with the personality-less Russian guy, and they are REPEATEDLY engaging in physical fighting. Like, it gets to a point of being laughable how often they are pointlessly wrestling each other for no clear reason. The dialogue indicates they are in an underground bunker in Area 51 and the power is out because the lights flickered, indicated they are on generator power.
The personality-less Russian guy says that what happened this morning to them didn't actually happen to them. This makes no sense and plays no role at all in the film, at least insofar as I could ascertain. Also, the lieutenant, Gail, has at least 2 hallucinatory trips or nightmares for no reason which ultimately play no role in the film at all.
Then, one of the survivors of the group that appeared in the first scene rushed into the room they're in. He finds out that Gail is infected, or rather WE find out she's infected because no mention is made by either of them of any sort of infection or illness or anything that might indicate zombies or vampires or anything of the sort. This guy just knows that she's "sick" and has to be quarantined from the others.
Later on, the elderly black man finds her, and her eyes are glowing like lights. She then transforms into the alien boogin thing, and kills him.
Then, the guy who had quarantined her comes back, finds out personality-less Russian guy is also infected, and tries to kill him in a hamfisted attempt that easily backfires. Personality-less Russian guy then squeezes on the guy's hand, bringing him to the ground, and apparently breaks his wrist, and this... somehow kills the guy.
Him and the remaining woman, Hanna, then flee, and find that the facility is overrun by aliens that look like Marvel's Venom with glowing eyes. They try to escape, and at some point I lost focus on what was even happening.
It culminated in Hanna being alone, hearing voices and jazz music in the halls, then being knocked out and dragged across the floor by an alien, where she has a flashback to that "morning" where she was in the car with her daughter, stupidly turned her head back to look at the daughter for a full minute, and got hit by another car as a result.
Later on, she ends up in a hospital somehow, and the doctor says her daughter is there to see her, and SHOCKING TWIST, her daughter is as old as she is now.
I have no idea how they even got to that place, and would've been completely left in the dust if not for the movie description mentioning time travel. The movie itself at no point showed any sort of time travel nor any hint of it up until that point.
Being more realistic, this feels like a summary of a film with all the dialogue written, and then directed by an AI as best as its confused little processor can manage.
The film starts with a random assortment of people carrying assault rifles and no helmets in some gray-and-brown looking facility just walking around. Then they apparently get attacked.
Then we get thrown into a room with a bunch of people who all seem to know or suspect what is happening and where they are but don't say what it is or where they are. At no point in the film was this ever explained or shown in any way to this point.
For unclear reasons, the elderly black man keeps picking a fight with the personality-less Russian guy, and they are REPEATEDLY engaging in physical fighting. Like, it gets to a point of being laughable how often they are pointlessly wrestling each other for no clear reason. The dialogue indicates they are in an underground bunker in Area 51 and the power is out because the lights flickered, indicated they are on generator power.
The personality-less Russian guy says that what happened this morning to them didn't actually happen to them. This makes no sense and plays no role at all in the film, at least insofar as I could ascertain. Also, the lieutenant, Gail, has at least 2 hallucinatory trips or nightmares for no reason which ultimately play no role in the film at all.
Then, one of the survivors of the group that appeared in the first scene rushed into the room they're in. He finds out that Gail is infected, or rather WE find out she's infected because no mention is made by either of them of any sort of infection or illness or anything that might indicate zombies or vampires or anything of the sort. This guy just knows that she's "sick" and has to be quarantined from the others.
Later on, the elderly black man finds her, and her eyes are glowing like lights. She then transforms into the alien boogin thing, and kills him.
Then, the guy who had quarantined her comes back, finds out personality-less Russian guy is also infected, and tries to kill him in a hamfisted attempt that easily backfires. Personality-less Russian guy then squeezes on the guy's hand, bringing him to the ground, and apparently breaks his wrist, and this... somehow kills the guy.
Him and the remaining woman, Hanna, then flee, and find that the facility is overrun by aliens that look like Marvel's Venom with glowing eyes. They try to escape, and at some point I lost focus on what was even happening.
It culminated in Hanna being alone, hearing voices and jazz music in the halls, then being knocked out and dragged across the floor by an alien, where she has a flashback to that "morning" where she was in the car with her daughter, stupidly turned her head back to look at the daughter for a full minute, and got hit by another car as a result.
Later on, she ends up in a hospital somehow, and the doctor says her daughter is there to see her, and SHOCKING TWIST, her daughter is as old as she is now.
I have no idea how they even got to that place, and would've been completely left in the dust if not for the movie description mentioning time travel. The movie itself at no point showed any sort of time travel nor any hint of it up until that point.
Interesting first 10 minutes, but the rest of the film's a dud
Leofwine_draca8 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
ALIEN DOMICILE posits itself as a creepy X-FILES style thriller with an Area 51 setting and scenes of marauding aliens, but this part of film only lasts for ten minutes or so. The opening scene has soldiers hunting for an unknown lifeform, and it's predictable in itself although mildly entertaining.
Sadly, this 10 minutes is the only interesting part of the entire movie. The rest is a locked room thriller in which a bunch of boring characters end up trapped in a single room. Nothing happens of interest for the rest of the story. The acting isn't bad as these films go, but the lack of action really killed it for me.
Sadly, this 10 minutes is the only interesting part of the entire movie. The rest is a locked room thriller in which a bunch of boring characters end up trapped in a single room. Nothing happens of interest for the rest of the story. The acting isn't bad as these films go, but the lack of action really killed it for me.
At least the Aliens looked Cool!
kermitdgorf12317 March 2019
Not Horrendous! But definitely skippable.
wandernn1-81-68327410 May 2020
-1 Star for the unnecessary and annoying flashback scene where mama thinks about her baby and realizes she might never see her baby again, which results in a huge power up moment where she acquires super human strength!!!
I wanted to give it a recommend for the ending but really the ending left me thinking like...okay this movie really wasn't that great.
I wanted to give it a recommend for the ending but really the ending left me thinking like...okay this movie really wasn't that great.
"You don't wanna go through those tunnels"
hwg1957-102-26570419 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Am not sure what this film was about. Nothing made sense until the half hour mark when an alien thing appeared and acted like a typical zombie. Ah, aliens on the loose in a military base kind of film, I naively thought. Well that's OK. But there was also an evolution theme, and then at the end it appears that everything that happened in the film were the imaginings of a woman in a long coma after a car accident, by which time her daughter had grown up. Or did I miss something? Anyway, it was a most unsatisfactory film. (Though it did seem to be filmed in a factory). And who knows why it was called 'Alien Domicile'?
The alien make up however was pretty good so that pulled my rating up to 3.
The alien make up however was pretty good so that pulled my rating up to 3.
Sorry (not sorry)
koolcam1126 April 2018
people hiding in a room
ijohndoe9 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Camera work was good. Acting was good. Directing was good. The location seemed good. The plot was good if it would have been followed like the description called for. I do not like blood and gore and horror movies. I was watching it because of the science-fiction part. There was very little science fiction. It was mostly people hiding in a room from they didn't know what. And they seem to die off one at a time. Not too much Gore and blood. I'm glad they just used it as they needed it. And it didn't go on for too long. I recommend watching this movie it's very well made. It seems the screenplay could have used a little Improvement. But everything else seem to go well. I wish the actors and the director would make more movies similar to this. They definitely have talent.
Some good takeaways, and some misses
gpalmer-209918 April 2017
To be clear, this is certainly not a big budget production. However I think the filmmakers did a decent job overall. It is much better in terms of production quality and acting than most of the little movies in this category. And for that, I give it credit. However, the story and plot have quite a few holes, and leave the viewer a bit perplexed. I also feel that the alien was under-served, and that they could've taken it a lot further. It is certainly not my favorite low-budget sci-fi, but deserves a decent amount of praise. It was entertaining to say the least.
Wait for it....
john-ostrander1 February 2018
The film is one hour fifteen minutes. I made it to the 40 minute mark on my second attempt. Although I got this movie from using a free redbox code, I guess there is no getting a refund on the one hour I spent trying to watch this movie.
To me it was reminiscent of SAW but a story never actually develops, they just remain in a room for the first 30 minutes. Then cross with Blair Witch project, where there is sense of fear and urgency, but without any discernable plot.
I could go on, but I think that will suffice for now. I've wasted enough time already. Just getting the warning out.
To me it was reminiscent of SAW but a story never actually develops, they just remain in a room for the first 30 minutes. Then cross with Blair Witch project, where there is sense of fear and urgency, but without any discernable plot.
I could go on, but I think that will suffice for now. I've wasted enough time already. Just getting the warning out.
Easy to guess plot
catchnaveen-psgtech3 July 2017
I started watching this movie when my iPad battery was at 29%. I completed the whole movie when my battery at 22%. Easy to guess plot, no engaging scenes, with good background score. Casting could have been better. Overall, it's a below average flick. Fast forwa4d to watch it quickly.
Easy to sum up in one sentence.
Barcode19757 April 2018
Boring
kassiecadle-9487814 April 2020
No dialogue in most scenes...just heavy breathing. The dialogue that does exist is dull, with some scenes lasting 7 minutes of pointless conversation. You never even see the alien on the cover art, just people in black morph suits running around. Best part was the ending, because I didn't have to watch it anymore.
Very slow, with slow spots in the movie.
gphoto-6041614 December 2020
Lack of research shows
chrisbw19658 April 2020
The movie had some good elements, like the camera work, and the acting was ok. My rub is that nothing was explained, and some of the type casting was not done. For Instance, the military guy is supposed to be an Air Force Special Forces Master Sergeant: um, NO. To make Msgt rank you need to be gung ho, especially at that rank. This guy looked like he'd fit in more in a starbucks ordering a latte, wearing his beach shirt and crocs. He did not come across as a trained killer, and it showed in the fight scenes, as well as the poor tactics and gear: definitely not believable. No one seems to wonder where they are, or why. Plot twists just drop, with no explanation or backstory. Basically, I didn't care about anyone, or what happened to them. They did stupid things, and got stupid results. I'm 2/3 thru this movie, after stopping multiple times to get some kind of explanation of what's going on from Google. That should have been the director and story writer's job!
I saw potential here but it just never developed. I was left with more questions, and not in a good way. Overall, I give it a 3; could have been a decent movie, but failed miserably.
What a waste of time and talent
kirachloe25 May 2023
Wow, what crud. So the writer, director, and plot summary were all by the same person, so you know where fault lies.
I always start with the script, and in my opinion this one was sub-par at best. This cast actually had some REAL acting talent, yet they were working to a script that was quite lacking, and with equally disappointing directing. Part of the movie experience is about the suspension of disbelief, but that requires the viewer to NOT be constantly distracted by words, actions, and situations that are absurd at its face.
I should have known at the outset after reading the plot summary, which was penned by the writer. As I have said in other reviews, whenever you see in the description SPECIAL FORCES (or things like ELITE SOLDIERS), you are more often than not in for a bad film. This film does not disappoint. The crew obviously has no clue what Special Forces really means and they were not educated or directed as such. The depiction of military personnel, their actions, etc., is an insult to anyone that has ever gone through boot camp, much less made it to the elite status.
Well you get my point ... this movie was a waste of time.
Yet one last comment. Yeah, this movie actually had some nominations for awards, which after viewing the movie really makes you wonder. A small sub group of like-minded viewers consider this movie award worthy, yet this and other movies by the same leadership continue to have such low rankings with the public at large. Maybe the team needs to move out of their echo chamber. As I said, there was obviously talent here, but in this case it was just wasted.
I always start with the script, and in my opinion this one was sub-par at best. This cast actually had some REAL acting talent, yet they were working to a script that was quite lacking, and with equally disappointing directing. Part of the movie experience is about the suspension of disbelief, but that requires the viewer to NOT be constantly distracted by words, actions, and situations that are absurd at its face.
I should have known at the outset after reading the plot summary, which was penned by the writer. As I have said in other reviews, whenever you see in the description SPECIAL FORCES (or things like ELITE SOLDIERS), you are more often than not in for a bad film. This film does not disappoint. The crew obviously has no clue what Special Forces really means and they were not educated or directed as such. The depiction of military personnel, their actions, etc., is an insult to anyone that has ever gone through boot camp, much less made it to the elite status.
Well you get my point ... this movie was a waste of time.
Yet one last comment. Yeah, this movie actually had some nominations for awards, which after viewing the movie really makes you wonder. A small sub group of like-minded viewers consider this movie award worthy, yet this and other movies by the same leadership continue to have such low rankings with the public at large. Maybe the team needs to move out of their echo chamber. As I said, there was obviously talent here, but in this case it was just wasted.
Tense sci-fi thriller
Woodyanders22 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Five government employees find themselves being terrorized by a predatory alien at the infamous Area 51 military base. Writer/director Kelly Schwarze keeps the gripping story moving along at a constant pace, takes time to develop the characters, and generates a good deal of claustrophobic tension. Moreover, the solid acting by the capable no-name cast keeps this movie humming: Elly Brown as the sweet, but tough Hanna, Eduard Osipov as the antagonistic Dimitri, Michael Monteiro as the amiable Russell Turner, Sabrina Cofield as the distraught Gail Sullivan, and Michael Tushaus as the selfish and untrustworthy Master Sergeant Ryan Pierce. The alien looks pretty gnarly as well. A cool little flick.
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