Aliens in the old west
Sam Danville (James Marsters) is outlaw. His last robbery did not go well. Someone died. Sam is wrought with guilt about the death so he turns himself in to the nearest sheriff. They sentence him to be hanged. Up on the gallows they are about to finish his death sentence when an infestation of nasty extraterrestrials comes to town and starts killing everyone. Sam finds himself with a reprieve.
No one knows much about these metal aliens other than they eat uranium. The town has a uranium mine that these aliens seem to be able to smell.
The town Sam picked to end his life of crime, and actual life, happens to be the same town that his former girlfriend, Abigail Pixley (Cindy Sampson) lives in. She is the girl he left behind to embark on a life of crime. Also in town is a bad ass bounty hunter Rose Hilridge (Sanny van Heteren). Everyone in town has to put aside their differences and confront this new menace that has no problem with taking them all out.
"High Plains Invaders" is one of SYBY channel's maneater series. It was released in 2009 and was directed by Kristoffer Tabori. The movie was a little slow going. There’s not much action that you can manufacture if your only weapons are six shooters, rifles and dynamite. Although these six shooters never seem to run out of bullets. There’s not much character development since everyone is just basically scratching to make a living in the old west and almost everyone gets killed anyway at one point or another. And you don’t mind so much that they die since almost all the characters are flawed in one way or another. The dialogue is also not expansive or deep since; again, for the most part, the players are one dimensional regular folk.
Overall I was OK with the movie. I was never a “Buffy” fan so I didn’t know who James Marsters was, but I am a Sci-Fi/horror/Alien & or Monster fan so this covered all the bases for me. The old west setting was also a plus since Steam punk is… lets face it… cool.
The aliens, however, are great. I love the idea of metal bug type aliens. Again, it adds a Steam punk flavor. The mother ship was also cool. This is a SyFy production so you can forgive it if the CGI is not top quality. If there had been a little more action and a faster pace it would have been better. But I do like those bugs.
By the way, Marsters did a fine performance so rock on “Buffy” fans.