Wavelength (1983)

Wavelength (1983). 1h 27m | PG

“Burnt out Hollywood musician Bobby Sinclair (Robert Carradine) and his girlfriend Iris (Cherie Currie) get wrapped up in a government extraterrestrial conspiracy after she starts u0026quot;hearingu0026quot; sounds coming from a nearby old Army facility in the Hollywood hills. With the help of old timer Dan (Keenan Wynn), the duo break into the facility and discover it runs seven stories into the ground and a trio of captured aliens are housed on the bottom floor. Naturally, the government isnu0026#39;t too happy with them there, until they find out Iris is on the same wavelength as the aliens.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eObviously inspired by Steven Spielbergu0026#39;s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS…, this one is interesting in that it takes the darker u0026quot;fourth kindu0026quot; approach whereas Spielberg went lighter with E.T. shot in the same year. This features likable leads and the script that moves pretty fast but also injects some unpretentious philosophy. Interestingly, this resembles the later STARMAN (1985) in many regards, right down to the oppressive military and a reflective orb coming down in the middle of the desert for pick-up. The aliens are played by three kids painted brown and they are all good in their silent roles. Director Mike Gray certainly has had an interesting career. He did some documentary work in the early 70s, wrote THE CHINA SYNDROME, made his feature debut with this and then moved onto writing/producing sci-fi TV stuff like STARMAN and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Features a great score by Tangerine Dream.”