MovieChat Forums > Xtro (1983) Discussion > Attention: Harry Bromley Davenport I hav...

Attention: Harry Bromley Davenport I have a few questions.

posted 15 years ago by daveblackeye15
7 replies | jump to latest

*spoilers*

I must admit I have some mixed feelings for your film. On the one hand I saw it many years ago when I was a kid and it terrified me. I turned it off some time after the infamous birthing scene. So therefore by nostalgia I cannot completely dislike it.

On the other hand I do see some pretty interesting ideas for a sci-fi horror movie and wish the film could have been a bit stronger in some areas and we could have really had something great.

But I kind of wished to ask you about the creature, I'll call it Xtro.
What confuses me is that Xtro/Sam changes through out the film. When he first returns he is a bowel legged crawling alien that has a forked tongue for killing. Okay so somehow the aliens turned him into one of their own/different aliens mutated him into something else and decided to drop him off/give him a crash shuttle.

Okay then Xtro/Sam rapes a woman in order to regain his original human look. Okay a bit weird but in the world of horror and sci-fi its plausible. He retains an ability to turn his original off-spring, Tony, into a similar creature who can lay eggs via his mouth.

But what's really weird is that when Sam starts to lose his human self, and gaining the sonic scream, why on earth does he revert into yet another alien form instead of that bowel legged crawling creature?

I was hoping you would have an answer, whether 'in the script' or due to production reasons....

[–] Harry323-1 15 years ago

Wow - I have no idea. we did this film 28 years ago and I just remember that we were trying to shock people. I don't think there's anything more to it than that. There are many faults and inconsistencies throughout the film, but we were young and stupid and making a movie.

I know that doesn't answer your question properly, but none of it makes much sense as far as I remember.

All the best

Harry.

[–] joeytramone 15 years ago

This is really cool if you are the real Davenport, I do trust it though. I came across this movie a few years back, and found it very enjoyable and interesting. I did catch a few plot holes, but personally i thought the atmosphere and the concepts were great. Funny story which brought me to this page was the fact that i saw your name as the director of a movie "Haunted Echoes" on demand, and it sounded so familiar that i searched it and realized you directed Xtro. Now i will definately check "Haunted Echoes" out.

[–] Gunnery 15 years ago

The creepy atmosphere and concepts were great, but it could have done without the dwarf and a few things that came out of nowhere that doesn't make a ounce of sense in the least.

What's the status on a sequel or remake? This movie would benefit with a bigger budget and better F/X they can afford nowadays. I definitely could see the son returning 30 plus years later committing all sorts of weird nasty deeds like his old man did.

[–] Harry323-1 15 years ago

Thank you so much for your kind comment. "Haunted Echoes" is NOT a horror type film at all. It's a ghost story. So don't watch it in the expectation of a lot of wham-bang special FX.

My dear buddy Sean Young plays the lead part. Sean is quite a firecracker. And I hope you will find it interesting, if you bother to see it. I'm also fond of old M. Emmet Walsh who is in the film too. You'll recognize him from a million other movies like Blood Simple and Blade Runner in which, co-incidentally, Sean also starred in her first major role.

You may also recognize David Starzyk and some other actors whom I have been fortunate enough to cast in my recent efforts.

So don't expect too much ... ok? It's just a little movie.

Harry.

PS. I also have another film out there on cable VOD right now called "Frozen Kiss" which is the latest film I directed. I'd better shut up now because this is sounding like an advertisement.

Best

H.

[–] daveblackeye15 15 years ago

Well if that is you for real thanks for answering. I didn't think there was a real in-script explanation but I wanted to ask anyway.

Kind of wish the four legged alien could have been at the end since the better part of the movie is at the beginning pre-dad's rebirth, my opinion. It kind of became a sorta soap-opera with alien elements before becoming an alien movie again for the last few. Kind of why I think the beginning is the better part.

Phew, this movie terrified me when I saw it around the time I was eight or nine, yeah bad idea but I didn't know what that big 'R' on the box stood for.

[–] goldenspiderduck-2 15 years ago

Ok I just saw the movie and have a theory for the need of all the metamorphosis which is bumped by my theory of why Sam came back in the first place.

Obviously Sam is unwillingly abducted by the aliens, I'm guessing his abduction is random, perhaps the aliens were experimenting on human to alien transformation and wanted an unbiased sample size.

Anyway Sam is taken, and transformed into one of them for three of our years (who knows how many for them). Even after becoming one of the aliens he still hasn't forgotten his past human life, and either yearns for his family to join him or only his genes were successful at the transformation (hence why he took his son and not his wife).

Here's where the first form comes in. The aliens transform Sam into the, what I call Hunter Sam. This form has within it the remnants of Sams human DNA and his human memories. This form is also needed in order to be able to track down, incapacitate, and impregnate another human female so that Sam will be able to take on Human form.

Human Sam is obviously needed to get close to his family. And the final form of Alien Sam is the form needed to survive on the aliens home-world, outer-space, whatever.

[–] 15 years ago

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