I have always been a Whitley Strieber fan. And when the news broke about his alien abduction people were sceptical, myself included. Then he published the books Communion and Transformation under none fiction. I would like to consider myself broadminded. After all, I've seen a few things that cannot be easily explained away. I've yet to read his factual accounts so I thought what better way to catch-up (kinda) than by watching the film. All things considered, it does have a great cast... what can go wrong.

As the opening credits rolled I noticed Strieber had written the screenplay, so this movie should be sticking close to the book. If this is the case then I'm in no rush to read the novels. Strieber is a strange man, to begin with. He videos practically his every move, even most of his working day. I couldn't think of anything more numbing than watching videos of me typing this or other reviews. I can understand it from the aspect of creativity and idea creation by why while you work? And where was the camera during these abductions?

Walken does his usual wonderful job of adding to Strieber's character. Though, most of the time it makes him more irritatingly bizarre. I also would have thought Strieber to be a little more open to the situation he finds himself in considering the subject matter he writes. He comes off strangely closed and apathetic. Walken's styling only hinders the film and the story.

The strongest cast members were Lindsay Crouse, as Anne Strieber, and Frances Sternhagen, as Dr Janet Duffy. These added some glue to the whole proceedings. Though, at times, some of the scenes were so badly written and directed that no acting skills would have saved them.

Now to the directing. Phillipe Mora (he of those classic films Howling II - Stirba - Werewolf Bitch and Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills) is okay at the normal point and shoot stuff. I have to give him credit for trying to use light and shadows to create atmosphere and tension... which came nowhere close to working. Truthfully, these attempts only caused more problems with the scenes. When the little blue men come and cart off Strieber you recoil in shame - in empathy to the director and the actor. It's not shocking, scary, or tension-ridden. It's laughable. Strieber does little to put up a fight and appears to be a bored crowd surfer at some tiresome third rate garage band rock concert. I'm sure I saw Walken stifle a yawn or two.

Then you get to the aliens themselves. These are the worst looking creatures to ever be filmed. It didn't take too long to realise that each of the alien's facial features was fixed. There's one animatronic blue who's eye's and eyebrows move - wow. The rest, well, is just pure rubbish. Even the grey turned out to be a lovely shade of boring magnolia. Though, towards the climax of the film, we are shown the reason why their features don't move. It's a mask... so what's hiding underneath. Well, by this time you don't care. You just want it to be over.

Now we're at the juicy part, the abduction scenes... There's a moment in the story when Anne asks her husband if he's on drugs? These sequences backup her need to ask. I think they're supposed to be dreamlike and nightmarish. However, Mora and Walken take them a step further into a weird and outlandish locale. I was flabbergasted at the nonsense I was watching. At parts, it's unintentionally funny, at others it's awkward, but overall, they're dull.

So what we get here is a film with unbelievable characters, plot holes fly a 747 into, continuity errors in script and reason, badly directed main characters, awful special effects, and mind-numbing dream sequences or alien abductions.

The major trouble is the bad stuff doesn't become evident until halfway through the film. So, if you're like me. If you're over twenty minutes into the film you'll stay with it in the hopes it'll get better. BE WARNED: This film doesn't. Even at the conclusion, it stutters to an end.

There's nothing about this film that I would recommend. I am now quite upset that I wasted over an hour and a half watching this film. Well, it's not a total waste of time, hopefully, you've been warned away. Take a look at my lists to see where this film placed in my charts and to find a better film to watch - There's plenty out there.

This movie remains one of Walken's best performances to date. Forget "Deer Hunter", he is one of two things that carry this film. It's him and the aliens, and that's it, but what a great film, anyway. The X-Files, though a good show, never quite reaches the level of freakiness that "Communion" has in moments like those in which Walken confronts the aliens. At one point, he states upon waking up to a suspected abduction that, "I don't want to think about that so, I go back to bed." There are so many classic lines of dialogue between Walken and the aliens that the movie reaches a point where it seems almost like a bizarre, personal delusion--portrait of a madman rather than alien abductions.