Sci-Fi Horror With 80s Star Deserves A Second Chance, Stream Without Netflix

Stranded is the story of four astronauts that are working a mining operation on a lunar base. A meteor storm pelts their base, prompting one of the crew members to inspect the exterior for damage. While outside, Ava (Amy Matysio), finds that some of the meteor fragments are growing spores, which prompts her to bring the pieces inside to inspect.

Ava accidentally cuts her finger during her analysis and becomes infected by an alien life form. Stranded sees Ava quickly become impregnated by the spores, which causes her to go into labor. The product that bursts forth from her womb escapes before anyone else on the base sees it, making Ava’s fellow crew members doubt her story.

But the base’s commander Col. Gerard Brauchman (Christian Slater), medical officer Dr. Lance Krauss (Brendan Fehr), and crew member Bruce Johns (Michael Therriault) soon discover that the newly birthed alien is very real and is quickly growing and evolving in Stranded. It can mimic human life, making for an interesting game of “cat and mouse” as it begins to stalk and kill the astronauts one by one.

Slater, who first rose to fame in the 1988 dark comedy Heathers, gives a solid performance in the nearly forgotten 2013 film. Unfortunately, the 80s/90s film star wasn’t enough to save this movie from being panned by critics, overlooked by audiences, and from being cast off to teeter on the brink of total obscurity.

Critics both in 2013 and today remark that Stranded bore an eerie similarity to Ridley Scott’s Alien, which is probably no coincidence. Roger Christian, who both directed and co-wrote Stranded, brought a great amount of experience to the table when it comes to science fiction films. Prior to being at the helm of this movie flop, Christian worked as a set and art director for Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope (1977) and Alien (1979), earning an Academy Award nomination for both endeavors and winning for his work on the first of the Star Wars films.

Stranded wasn’t Christian’s first flop in the genre, either. Some might recall the disastrous 2000 film Battlefield Earth, regarded as one of the worst films of the modern era. The L. Ron Hubbard-based film starred John Travolta and Forest Whitaker and was the 7th feature film to have Christian in the director’s chair.

Some of the comments published by critics tend to overlook obvious points that might otherwise have led to less harsh reviews. Despite having an Academy Award-winner in charge and a talented and familiar face in the leading role, Stranded at its core is an ultra-low budget science fiction film. It might lack originality, but dinging a low-budget film for cheap special effects and lukewarm acting isn’t giving it a fair assessment.

GFR SCORE

To be fair, there have been multiple science fiction films that have borrowed story lines and exhausted the movie tropes within the genre and have still resulted in productions that garner positive reviews from critics. The similarities to Alien aside, Stranded does give audiences an interesting storyline at the very least and should be given the opportunity to fill some space on a true sci-fi fan’s DVR queue.

You can stream Stranded for free with Tubi.