Stranded (1987 film)

Stranded is a 1987 American science fiction horror film directed by Tex Fuller, written by Alan Castle, and starring Ione Skye, Maureen O'Sullivan, Joe Morton, Susan Barnes, Cameron Dye, and Michael Greene. It was released on November 20, 1987, by New Line Cinema.

Plot
A grandmother, Grace Clark, and granddaughter, Deirdre Clark, live on a remote farm in the remote American South. They find themselves hostages of a family of aliens who crash land near their home. The aliens are escapees from a war-torn world hoping to hide on Earth. Due to a misunderstanding, the aliens kill the granddaughter's boyfriend, and this leads to their discovery and being attacked by the locals.

The locals have been worked into a frenzy by the killed boy's father, a local hothead, which quickly devolves into a hostage situation. Hollis McMann, an African-American sheriff, tries to control the situation and get everyone, aliens included, out alive. His efforts are made more difficult by the alien family's robot guard, an alien assassin from the family's home world, and the prejudice of his own deputies and the locals.

Production
Stranded marked the feature directorial debut of Tex Fuller, who had previously worked as a photojournalist and doctumentarian. After failed attempts at selling a feature adaptation of his 1977 documentary Death Row, Fuller instead decided a lower budgeted more high concept film would be a better method of establishing himself. Fuller came across Alan Castle's script for Shockwave (which was retitled to Stranded to avoid confusion with Shock Waves) with Fuller quite taken with the scripts themes of fear and intolerance mixed with a high tension home invasion setup. After taking the script to producers Mark Levinson and Scott Rosenfelt, the film was put into production after the two responded positively to the script.

Release
New Line Cinema gave the film a gradual release by region in late 1987.

Reception
The Washington Post found the film to be the kind of "picture a company will just throw out into the market, hoping to cop a quick buck". It found the acting, direction, special effects, and lighting to be lacking. Creature Feature gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, finding it an entertaining and respectable piece of work. Moria found the film to be a disappointment and amateurish, especially the direction, pacing, and writing.