'Recall' an amusingly bad flying saucer thriller

"The Recall" is the kind of bad flying saucer movie you almost enjoy as much as a good one, just because it's so unaware of its own cheesy dumbness.

Take the scene in the woods where Brendan (RJ Mitte) steps on a bear trap that clamps onto his leg, crippling him. His pal Charlie (Jedidiah Goodacre) goes for help.

"Stay here, OK?" Charlie says with a straight face.

See? How dumb is that?

"The Recall" combines the UFO encounter drama "Signs" with the tongue-in-cheek horror tale "Cabin in the Woods," resulting in a science fiction thriller that could easily be the pilot for a new alien invasion parody on the Syfy Channel.

Five friends - Charlie and Brendan plus Rob (Niko Pepaj), his redheaded girlfriend Kara (Hannah Rose May) and shy Annie (Laura Bilgeri) - arrive at a secluded cabin summer house for some fun, unaware that an alien invasion is imminent.

They see something out in the woods. Something mysterious. Threatening. Deadly.

And that's just Wesley Snipes. He plays a military-garb-swaddled nut job called "The Hunter." He has unfinished business with "the visitors" who abducted him in 1995, tortured him and placed artistic scars all over his body.

He protects the terrified quintet from a blue-ish creature that has obviously escaped from a 1950s sci-fi thriller. Hard to believe this alien could be part of a civilization that created humans thousands of years ago.

"Not exactly what they teach you in Sunday school!" The Hunter snips.

Visual designer Mauro Borrelli directs "The Recall" with such serious commitment that Charlie's escape from the cheap, "Matrix"-inspired space craft interior becomes even more amusingly absurd.

For the record, "The Recall" was originally produced for the "Barco Escape" three-screen, panoramic theatrical format that surrounds audiences, plus offers "the ultimate immersive" cinema experience. Scenes were also shot for Virtual Reality.

Sadly, this reviewer had to make do with a digital screener download onto a laptop Think Pad.

Even so, "The Recall" has better production values than "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

And it's almost as funny.

“The Recall”

★ ½

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Jedidiah Goodacre, Laura Bilgeri, RJ Mitte, Hannah Rose May, Niko Pepaj

Directed by: Mauro Borrelli

Other: A Freestyle Releasing release. Rated R for language, nudity and violence. 91 minutes