The Arrival (which should not be confused with the Charlie Sheen flick from 1996) is a fascinating jaw-dropping slice of WTF filmmaking. It was produced by The Unarius Academy of Science, a quasi-cult who believe in astrological UFO transcendental reincarnation New Agey gobbledygook. I think the film’s purpose wasn’t necessarily to bring new followers to the fold, but to spell out their beliefs and let the audience decide for themselves.
It is my belief that they are batshit insane. However, they sure know how to make a masterpiece of head-scratching cinema. This might be the best cult movie that was actually made by a cult of all time.
A caveman named Zan (Dan Smith) sees a UFO land. He wanders curiously towards it when he is shot in the back of the head with a beam of light which speeds up his evolution so that he can converse with the aliens who wear bad bald caps. They tell him he used to be a spaceship captain in a previous life who fought a star battle against literal stars. When given the choice of peace and totally annihilating his enemy, he chose to blow their planet to smithereens. But afterwards, he felt kinda bad about the whole thing. And because of that, he’s carried that guilt with him all through his past lives. Maybe it’s time for Zan to accept the extraterrestrials as his personal Lord and savior.
This movie is fucking nuts, and I mean that in the best way possible. I’m not exactly sure if the Unarius Academy’s religion is being adequately displayed or if the director just saw 2001, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars and put them all in a blender. Being a film financed by a cult, you’d think the effects would be bad, but they’re actually kinda great. It’s an odd mix of rotoscoping and computer animation. The interior of the spaceship looks like the Death Star was given a Studio 54 makeover, and the effects are reminiscent of a Roger Corman version of Tron. And by that, I mean the Battle Beyond the Stars Corman who actually spent money on the effects and not the penny-pinching Corman of every other movie he made. It looks so good that you’re kind of in awe of how they actually achieved some of the effects. Even when they are kind of cheesy (one spaceship looks like a giant razor), there’s an odd, dare I say beauty about them. The starfield effects are wondrous as well as they look like a cross between the starfield from 2001 and the backdrop an elementary school would use on picture day.
The angel Uriel (played by Ruth E. Norman, co-founder of Unarius) is also a sight to behold. Imagine if Glenda the Good Witch and Queen Carlotta from Desperate Living had a baby. A very old baby.
I’m not much of a religious man, but if the Heaven that Unarius promises us is half as cool as advertised in this picture, I might have to join up. Or at least join their mailing list. Folks, if you think you’ve seen it all, trust me, you haven’t.
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