A tremendously terrifying opening and closing, with great set-pieces throughout and a paranoid bit of police procedural. The elements of noir and something like a body-snatcher movie combine into something greater than the sum of their parts. Add some 80s practical effects and a little bit of cheese, and you get something both real fun and real scary.

The Brits have their evil villages courtesy of The Wicker Man and Hot Fuzz, and in America there's Potters Bluff in Gary Sherman's Dead and Buried. Some segment of the population is killing travelers who dare wander into the coastal town, but they turn up alive later - what's going on? James Farentino is the cop who's trying to figure it out, a native son recently returned to give back to his community. The solution feels a little glossed over, but the twists are right out of a Twilight Zone episode. Which is perhaps why it sometimes felt like it was a "television-strength" story, despite having some pretty original, gory kills with the help of make-up effects master Stan Winston. It still has a nice paranoid atmosphere throughout, and if I was generally unenthused, the third act revelations both puzzled and delighted me. A fun twist on the formula.

So much of this movie was so dark I couldn’t see what was happening. Maybe that was for the best.