Welcome to Syfy Schlock!, a recurring column devoted to those infamous movies hailing from “The Most Dangerous Night on Television”. Indeed, I’m reliving Syfy née the Sci Fi Channel’s bygone weekend programming, which included some of the most dubiously made creature-features, supernatural slashers, and disaster movies to ever grace the small screen. And if you have even an iota of nostalgia for that now-obsolete age of reckless, low-tier entertainment as I do, then you’ve come to the right place.
After being preoccupied in July, I return with two very forgotten movies from Syfy’s alcove of alien and space features. Neither Silent Warnings nor Mammoth are streaming right now, and I certainly don’t see either receiving a fancy boutique Blu-ray in the near future. Nevertheless, I wanted to keep both of these movies’ names out there, even if it means screaming into a void.
In May of 2003, Silent Warnings aired with little warning. A few TV ads could be spotted here and there, of course, but this “Sci Fi Pictures Original” was just a blip on the radar. Luckily, there was a home-video release for anyone who missed its premiere and reruns. And it’s safe to say, the crop circle-centric and Signs-esque artwork drew a lot of folks to this movie in video shops.
Silent Warnings (also known as Dark Harvest and Warnings) had the good fortune of airing on Syfy (Sci Fi) back when the network’s originals looked more like movies rather than just extended TV episodes. Director Christian McIntire has since traded hats and now works behind the scenes, yet based on this movie as well as the prior Lost Voyage, he had an eye for creepy atmosphere.
While M. Night Shyamalan renewed pop culture’s interest in aliens back in the 2000s, his contemporaries learned the wrong lesson from Signs. Shyamalan’s movie wasn’t just about an extraterrestrial enemy running amok; below the surface was a rich and almost tangible family element, which made the overarching threat more personal and menacing. Silent Warnings isn’t in the same league as Signs, however, I do appreciate the human characters not becoming overshadowed by their inevitable invaders.
Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane are on screen a lot less than their top-billing here would suggest. Instead, Silent Warnings focuses on A.J. Buckley, as the cousin of Baldwin’s character Joe, and his friends. And what could have easily become a long pre-game of obnoxious college-age behavior is narrowly avoided. You’re more likely to see the inch-by-inch paranoia of Layne (Buckley) and the others grow, as they fix up Joe’s old farmhouse and realize they’re not so alone out there in the sticks. There is also the fact that Layne, in his attempt to not cause panic or doom himself to the same state of delusion as Joe, hides his late cousin’s strange hobby from everyone else. There is something effective about the characters not realizing they’re in danger until it’s too late to do anything about it.
This movie is more subdued than expected. You might even call it a slow-burn, if that term helps make Silent Warnings’ nearly languid pacing seem worthwhile. The shadows walking past windows, the things bumping in the night, and the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scares are all hoary as hell, but damn if I’m not affected. It’s only once Silent Warnings succumbs to its elevator pitch that the piecemeal effort seen so far feels sort-of wasted; you’re in for a barefaced confrontation with one very terrible-looking, CG-generated grey alien at the end. Along with that is the open-endedness that’s par for the course in movies like this.
From a horror perspective, there had to be a payoff after taking a slow and measured approach. Yet once everything’s out in the open, you realize Silent Warnings worked much better as a paranoia piece than an alien movie. Just knowing something was there in the cornfields, coming inside the house and chipping away at the cast bit by bit, was enough for me. At the very least, the characters weren’t completely cookie-cutter. You get an idea of Buckley’s grief and confusion as he struggles to keep everyone together, and his girlfriend (Callie De Fabry) delivers a solid monologue about loss. Those kinds of moments do wonders for a not-so-wonderful movie.
Going the opposite way, as far as alien invasion movies go, is Tim Cox’s Mammoth (2006). The fingerprints of more standard Syfy fare are all over this quasi-rehash of The Blob (1988). The tone is also incredibly upbeat when watched directly after Silent Warnings. Here we have a lifeform from space quickly attaching itself to the first thing it comes in contact with upon arriving on Earth. Unfortunately for those around it, the alien has seized, then animated, the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth.
Believe me, there were easier ways to set loose a mad mammoth on modern day humans in a Syfy movie. So why not appreciate Mammoth looking outside the box and involving aliens? That central conceit isn’t even too hard to swallow as the movie itself doesn’t treat the event as a major anomaly; two Men in Black-esque agents make the unbelievable believable as they employ Vincent Ventresca’s character in the capture of the rogue invader.
Along for the ride are Tom Skerritt and Summer Glau, who respectively play Ventresca’s character’s father and daughter. They, plus the aforementioned agents, get tangled up in one rather flawed wrangling of the rampaging creature, whose detection hilariously goes unnoticed by most others, despite its size… and the fact that it’s a mammoth. Mind you, it’s nowhere as bad as in 1998’s Godzilla, where the gargantuan monster travels below and above ground without being discovered. Here, though, you blow with the wind as Mammoth stomps its way to some semblance of a logical conclusion.
There’s no getting around the dire CGI used for the movie’s namesake; it’s especially mingy in today’s light. The creature design, on the other hand, is delightful. There were definitely some liberties taken with the mammoth’s look, almost to the point where it’s more mastodonian in appearance. But going with that fetid, woolless, and zombified physique is inspired, even if the effects wizards clearly didn’t have the means to manifest such a pulpy concept.
Apart from a unique choice of monster, Mammoth readily offers a sense of humor. It’s enough to keep the whole vehicle from spinning out and crashing, and most importantly, keep my attention for a spell. The bit of family drama here, which is something of a cliché found in too many monster movies made in the wake of Jurassic Park, is flimsy at best and dull at worst. Even still, there’s really no getting overwhelmed or distracted in that one area of an otherwise absurd yet amusing B-movie.
Aliens in space don’t always grab my attention, but bringing them down to Earth? That has potential, and these two movies act on the same idea with varying results. Still, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained.
Stay tuned for more Syfy.
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