Endangered Species

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.