SYNOPSICS
Choker (2005) is a English movie. Nick Vallelonga has directed this movie. Paul Sloan,Colleen Porch,Hayley DuMond,Nick Vallelonga are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. Choker (2005) is considered one of the best Horror,Action,Sci-Fi movie in India and around the world.
The serial-killer Hud Masters and his partner Logan have been recruited by a governmental agency to hunt down aliens that can survive for a period inhabiting human bodies. Logan reports their murders to her boss Frank Russo, a family man married with Stacy Russo with a daughter, who has a team to remove the bodies and any evidence. When an alien switch bodies to escape from Hud, Lt. Murcer, Lt. Clark and the coroner Santo are forced to return the bodies and Hud, who had been captured by the detectives, to Frank that explains that one hundred aliens from an evolved race had moved to Earth since their planet is doomed. Now Hud has to chase the dangerous Leader, who has adapted to the atmosphere of our planet and wants to breed.
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Choker (2005) Reviews
Considering the Extremely Low-Budget, Works Reasonably Well on DVD
The serial-killer Hud Masters (Paul Sloan) and his partner Logan (Colleen Porch) have been recruited by a governmental agency to hunt down aliens that can survive for a period inhabiting human bodies. Logan reports their murders to her boss Frank Russo (Nick Vallelonga), a family man married with Stacy Russo (Susse Budde) with a daughter, who has a team to remove the bodies and any evidence. When an alien switch bodies to escape from Hud, Lt. Murcer (Anthony John), Lt. Clark (Bobby Ray Shafer) and the coroner Santo (Katrina Law) are forced to return the bodies and Hud, who had been captured by the detectives, to Frank that explains that one hundred aliens from an evolved race had moved to Earth since their planet is doomed. Now Hud has to chase the dangerous Leader (Hayley DuMond), who has adapted to the atmosphere of our planet and wants to breed. "Choker" is definitely not a good or an unforgettable sci-fi movie. However, considering the extremely low-budget, it works reasonably well on DVD. The storyline is a rip-off of "The Hidden" and the writer / director Nick Vallelonga is too fat for a skilled agent. One question: if the aliens die in the delivery of their offspring, how could Hud and the Leader be brothers? My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Comando: Exterminador" ("Commando: Extermination")
"Choker" delivers something with nothing
Considering what the film makers and cast of "Choker" had to work with as far as budget, time and resources, the film is a triumph of creativity and indie spirit. Script delivers a fine twisty road to a fun, pulpy resolution and the cast dials in excellent performances in some just-this-side-of-stereotypical roles. The triple-threat of Colleen Porch, Paul Sloan and (especially) Hayley DuMond are a joy to watch on screen. Technically, flick suffers from occasionally rushed-feeling or under-lit or under-choreographed sequences, but again, considered these folks had 12 days to shoot the film, they did a wonderful job! Overall the film feels more thriller than horror and is quite enjoyable.
Derivative Sci-Fi Thriller Has Enough Redeeming Features To Be Tolerable
Don't believe the artwork on the DVD case for writer & director Nick Vallelonga's science fiction chiller "Disturbance" a.k.a. "Choker" about an alien with gnarly fingers gripping an M-16 assault rifle. The $35-thousand dollar budget of this straight-to-video DVD release couldn't accommodate this other worldly nail-biter about aliens invading Earth as a last desperate measure for survival, as was the case in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Essentially, this "X-Files" type actioneer has friendly aliens from a dying planet contacting an ultra-secret government agency about a splinter group of their ownnearly one hundred of themthat have come to Earth to live among us. The friendly aliens help us out by sending one of their own to inhabit the body of executed serial murderer Hud Masters (hard-bodied Paul Sloan of "The Scorpion King") and he makes it his mission to track down the renegade aliens. These renegades thought that they could sustain themselves in a human body, but the diseases that they bring with them break down human bodies. Consequently, to maintain their masquerade, the aliens have to jump from one human body to another like the alien in "The Hidden." Every time that these aliens swap bodies, they drool up a load of green slime and hurl. The aliens struggle to maintain a low profile, so they appropriate the bodies of the scum of the earth, for example, hookers, johns, pimps, drug dealers, addicts, in other words, the dregs of society. Writer & director Nick Vallelonga displays a modicum of flair with this formulaic subject matter. First, he launches the story with an invigorating fight between our crew-cut, muscle-bound serial slayer Masters and a buff looking babe Kat (Kimberly Estrada of "Million Dollar Baby") in the rear of an apartment parking complex. They knock heads until he perforates her with an automatic pistol, and she starts spewing up green slime. Indeed, this run-of-the-mill thriller would have been extremely gory were it not for the green slime. Second, he waits until he has the plot in gear to reveal the hard facts about the unbelievable things that we wind up caught up in throughout the opening hour of "Disturbance." Indeed, enough of these savage killings attract the attention of LAPD's finest. Det. Lt. Murcer (Anthony John Denison of NBC-TV's "Crime Story") and his knuckle-fisted, wise-cracking partner Lt. Clark (Robert R. Schafer of "Psycho Cop") want answers that their own CSI technician Santo (Katrina Law of "Stiletto") cannot provide because she has never seen such phenomenon. Meanwhile, Frank Russo (portly Nick Vallelonga of "The Godfather") receives a call from his field agent-in-charge-of-the-mission, Logan (Colleen Porch of "Demon Hunter"), that he's needed because Hud is experiencing problems. Before Russo can to Logan, Hud chokes Logan to death. By this time, the LAPD has arrested Hud and Clark has done his best to beat the guy to a pulp. Russo shows up and spills the beans in an extended expository dialogue scene about Hud and the aliens. Russo uses his governmental authority to bail out Hud after the LAPD, and they resume their pursue the big cheese alien (Hayley DuMond of "Raptor Island") who now has targeted Russo's wife and child. The ending is pretty typical for a horror movie but at least Vallelonga eschews any kind of a happy ending. Despite its low budget trappings, "Disturbance" has some gritty, get-up-and-go gumption to it, and it only malingers throughout its trim 91 minutes for Russo's expository scene in the police station. Vallelonga trots out several sexy babes for eye candy purposes and stages enough grueling fights so that this thoroughly average thriller has some solidarity to it that lesser efforts lack. Lenser Vladimir Van Maule does a marvelous job on a tight budget and the letterbox formatted cinematography is easy on the eye. During his colorful and insightful commentary, Vallelonga said that he wanted "Disturbance" to look like panes from a comic book and it does resemble a comic book in its palette of colors. The use of green, blue, and red is truly evocative and makes for appealing compositions, better than you'd expect from something like this with its borderline budget. Veteran composer Harry Manfredini of "Friday the 13th" movies rounds off the rough edges with a serviceable score. Although it isn't for anybody but people who love to slum for sci-fi thrillers off the beaten path, "Disturbance" is decent enough that you cannot really complain about time wasted. Sloan is convincing enough as the serial killer largely because he has some interesting memories as a kid growing up with an abusive father.
Choker
I saw the movie at a screening in Los Angeles about 4 months ago or so, at a film festival. I discovered Choker through the movie's writer and director Nick Vallenlonga's IMDb page. I found out about him after seeing an earlier movie of his, Corporate Ladder which starred Tony Denison and Jon Pollito, who both used to be on Crime Story together. Anyway, I got to see Choker and I was impressed by the actors performances. My favorite in the film was the alien "leader", Haley DuMond. She can really act and I see she is in Vallenlonga's upcoming film as well, nice. The rest of the cast were also very good: Tony Denison was great as usual. Robert Shafer provided some well timed humor. Colleen Porch was the "beauty" of the movie, and the lead, Paul Sloan, was intense. This movie was fun and did what it what meant to do, entertain. Choker is not a huge budget production so don't expect complex CGI or anything really fancy. The movie was somewhat serious at times, somewhat tongue in cheek sci-fi at times. If you want to watch this movie , watch it with the intent of having fun. What I got out of it was kind of a 50's B sci-fi flick set in present time. DuMond and Denison were not at the screening I attended, unfortunately, but Shafer, Harry Manfredini (who composed all the Friday the 13ths), Paul Sloan and Vallenlonga were there. It's coming out on DVD and I recommend checking it out. I for one am hoping that the DVD contains a simultaneous director's commentary feature. It would be interesting to hear how quickly a particuar scene was shot since Choker was filmed in a little over a week.
They are among us
Choker is an interesting creature, much like the surprisingly sympathetic characters that are presented to us in the film itself. Seeing the film projected in vivid HD on a big screen probably helped the illusion of being dunked into this "sci-fi/noir" world and being told that the film was conceived and developed over a six week period prior to a twelve day shoot definitely got a raised eyebrow from me. The cast elevated this thing immensely. Even the director, who was at this screening, said that without his cast, the material could easily have been reduced to the mediocre. I must remark on this. Based on what I saw and knew of the film, I would have scored this film smack in the middle of a 1-10 scale. Having said that, and given the singular performance of actress Hayley DuMond (playing the lead villain), I must score this film at least one or two points higher - her performance does not deserve to be in a film ranked as a "5" and it elevates the film without question. Solid performances from all, including leads Paul Sloan and Colleen Porch aside, I felt quite disappointed, not because I wasn't engaged...the story demands you keep paying attention - but because with minuscule budgets and no time, a project's true potential can be undermined. Some sequences were gorgeous, well acted and moving - others were muddy and looked rushed or dragged out. To be expected yes, but still a mark against. I expected more horror, but got more of a thriller. Expected more gore; got more creepiness and social commentary. Kind of a cool surprise - I left with the feeling that I had still gotten a little bit of entertainment from a film that seemed to have been made on sheer determination on the part of a gung-ho cast and crew. The film itself is not what I would technically ever call a great film, but the energy behind it seemed to want so badly to contradict that.