Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1 | Film review - Iwan Rheon holds the fort

Fear is a state of mind.

Alone on screen for most of the film, Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon does all the heavy lifting in this low-budget sci-fi thriller. The setting is a futuristic Earth, 57 years after an alien invasion forced most of humanity underground, and Rheon’s lone soldier, S.U.M.1 (‘someone’, geddit?), is guarding a defensive watchtower against extraterrestrial attack. Yet as his 100-day mission wears on, solitude and paranoia begin to crack his gung-ho spirit. Are there really any aliens out there?

This is hardly new territory for a sci-fi filmmaker to stake and Berlin-based director Christian Pasquariello doesn’t give us anything particularly distinctive or original here, although Rheon does his best in an underwritten part and there is the odd flurry of action towards the end.

Certificate 15. Runtime 95 mins. Director Christian Pasquariello

Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1 available on Digital from Thunderbird Releasing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S37cRQ-BZu8

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.