When I watch one of the SciFi (now “Syfy”) network’s collection of “originals.” the first question i ask is, “which movie are they ripping off this time?”
Yeah, we know they do make the odd film or two which is actually original. But that’s a lot like finding a rare coin in your pocket change. It happens all the time, right?
So when you watch an “original” made in the early nothings and it involves tracking down giant bugs in a train tunnel, does anyone really have any doubts which film they are mimicking?
Okay, it’s a little different. After all, the perfect “original” doesn’t match its model beat for beat, but instead merely suggests it. And you know in a movie like this they’re going to have to throw in as much of Aliens as they can.
This time we’ve got the deepest railway tunnel ever dug, for a railway connector which will cut hours off the old route. Unfortunately, this wakes up hibernating bugs which have been waiting millions of years for someone to release them.
So we have a SWAT team, led by an FBI agent played by Antonio Sabato, Jr. (who was in a lot of these things because he has the raw leading man power of, oh, Richard Greico).
We’ve also got the bug expert and love interest none of these films would ever consider themselves complete without. Not that Antonio ever gets that excited about her.
At least not as far as we can tell.
So bugs attack, characters die heroically, the greedy developer interferes, offering them lots of money to cover it all up.
Or, in other words, pretty much routine.
Even for a SciFi original…
rivets on the poster 