Xtro (1982)

"Xtro With Xtras!"

       Second Sight performs an invaluable service for fans of this bizarre 1982 British SF horror everywhere by releasing it on Blu-ray with plenty of extras and including the soundtrack CD in the package!

So what's the movie all about? For those who have yet to sample its whacked out delights, there's this family on a farm. Dad throws a stick for the dog. The stick explodes and Dad disappears for three years. His son is caught in the blast which presumably explains why the child only seems to age by the amount of time it might take to shoot a low budget British exploitation film. 

       Anyway, three years later, an alien with his head on back to front lands near London, impregnates a young lady and in a splendid bit of creative lunacy, she gives birth to Dad, fully formed!

Dad wants his son back and is prepared to use any means to get him, including a clown, a human-sized Action Man, a live panther and turning pretty Maryam D'Abo into some kind of alien ovipositor thing in the bathroom. Eventually things make even less sense, culminating in a couple of different endings you can flip between to your heart's content on this new disc.

XTRO is crazy, but it wasn't until this viewing that I understood (from Mrs Probert's comments while viewing and on the extras as well) that the brief was to try and do something like 1979's PHANTASM. It certainly has that movie's feeling of distorted reality where anything can happen, leaving you both scratching your head and feeling quite weirded out.

Second Sight's Blu-ray offers us four versions of the film - the original cinematic ending, the VHS ending, the 'video version' and a new director's version. That last one is introduced by director Harry Bromley-Davenport himself. "Maybe I've made it worse," he says. He's certainly made it bluer and darker so I'd suggest watching one of the two pristine 'original' versions first.

Extras include a nearly hour-long documentary with Bromley-Davenport (who gets to play the piano!), producer Mark Forstater, stars Bernice Stegers, Susie Silvey and Tik aka Tim Dry (the alien) and Tok aka Sean Crawford (Action Man) and others. Even Alan Jones pops up.

'The World of XTRO' is a featurette with XTRO's 'number one fan' Dennis Atherton who proves the film does indeed have a cult following in the same manner as the PHANTASM pictures. 'Beyond XTRO' gives us footage from the planned XTRO 4 - THE BIG ONE, planned by the same director and producer. There's a Brian May music tribute to deceased star Philip Sayer and a book with new writing on the movie. You also get the soundtrack CD which means I can now say goodbye to my played-to-death-in-the-1980s XTRO vinyl on the TER label. Excellent package, guys. XTRO would be proud, just before he did something horrific and probably daft. 

XTRO is getting a UK Blu-ray release from Second Sight with a book and CD on 18th June 2018