Endangered Species (1982)
Director: Alan Rudolph
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A strange, stylish, bizarrely eclectic conspiracy thriller. Out in the rural American Midwest, cows are found slaughtered and mutilated, the crimes having been perpetrated by UFO-like flashing lights in the sky. Purportedly based on facts connected with regular illegal tests conducted into the effectiveness of germ and chemical warfare, Rudolph's film fascinates partly by its oddball characterisation - the investigators include a juvenile delinquent, her drunken detective father, and a raunchy woman sheriff - and partly by the enigmatic, almost impressionistic structure of the narrative, which throws up weird, thought-provoking connections and correspondences. For all its occasional pretensions, a film that offers many rewards, thanks largely to its firm alliance with the sci-fi genre: a strategy that entails rather more intelligence and emotional power than a superficially similar exercise like Silkwood.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Alan Rudolph
Producer: Carolyn Pfeiffer
Cast: Robert Urich, JoBeth Williams, Paul Dooley, Hoyt Axton, Peter Coyote, Marin Kanter, Dan Hedaya, Harry Carey Jr full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 97 mins
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