RIIFF Movie Review: There’s Something Out There

Writer | Director: Brian Pulido
Official Site

So, this is another one that I don’t get, but apparently a lot of people out there are afraid of this little red-headed doll. You know, the one that was the knock-off of My Buddy?

Uh, Chucky, yeah. Chucky. The star of the Child’s Play movies and the soon-to-be-released Seed of Chucky.

So, I don’t get it again. It’s a little talking doll. It tries to kill you. Kick it. Hit it with a broom. Whatever – it’s stupid.

OK, now imagine you have Child’s Play, but instead of a doll, you have a garden gnome.

Got it? OK, well then you have There’s Something Out There.

The movie is the latest from the creator of the comics Lady Death and Evil Ernie, Brian Pulido. Puldio’s got an impressive track record in film posted at his website ? he’s apparently done commercials for Coke and Comedy Central, has directed videos for Roy Orbison and KISS.

Whatever Pulido’s pedigree (I’ve never read one of his comics, by the way. They just don’t appeal to me at all), it’s hard to take There’s Something Out There seriously. Remember: it’s about a killer garden gnome.

While watching the movie, it was really hard to tell if the movie was winking at the audience, tongue in cheek, or whether it was drearily serious. Turns out it’s serious ? Pulido says that it’s his tribute to the Zulu Warrior story from the Trilogy of Terror.

“This is an intense horror movie. This gnome is a crazed, driven predator,? as Pulido says on his website.

What the gnome actually ends up seeming like is a silly, little pervert (the gnome’s grunts and giggles make him sound like he’s using his hand quickly, but not with a knife in it), but that’s just semantics.

The short film gives us very little besides the killing ? no logic, no reason for the events, none of it.

Frankly, this is just not a smart movie. The acting is fine, the production values great for a short, but this is not smart, it is not interesting, it was not a good idea.

Pulido’s website mentions that he sold his comic collection to fund the film. I’d rather have the comics.