Movie Review

?½

ALIENATED

Written and directed by Brian Ackley. Starring Jen Burry, George Katt, Taylor Negron. At the Somerville Theatre.

80 minutes. Unrated.

“It’s what we don’t see which is truly frightening,’’ says Steven Spielberg (by way of Alfred Hitchcock). He was talking about “Jaws’’ at the time, a film that surely demonstrates that principle at work. On the other hand, there is M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,’’ which also conceals the horror, but is not scary at all.

That’s one of the problems with Brian Ackley’s no budget sci-fi psychological thriller (shot on location in New Jersey in six days). No horror can compensate for the preceding 75 minutes of tedious, repetitious bickering. It’s about as thrilling as a couple’s therapy session with a married pair who hate each other and for good reason.

It begins with a scene that promises growing suspense and deepening mystery. An image appears like a re-creation of a sighting in “UFO Files’’ on the History Channel. Nate (George Katt) records it on his video camera. Surely he will present the electrifying footage to the authorities or the media who will be skeptical until it’s almost too late.

But Nate is not that kind of guy, nor is this that kind of movie. It’s a stagey three-hander like a bad Edward Albee play — “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’’ with E.T. as the imaginary child. Nate can’t stop arguing with his wife, Paige (Jen Burry), long enough to consider the bigger picture that the human race might be exterminated at any minute by extraterrestrials. Nate asks her to look at the video without telling her what’s on it. She wants to take a bath. He tells her she never shows any interest in anything he does, like uncovering evidence of an alien invasion. She says he’s self-centered. And so on.

Perhaps that is Ackley’s point, that people these days are just too self-centered. A mysterious new neighbor (Taylor Negron) iterates that insight, rudely chastising Nate for being a self-centered loser. The self-loathing Nate can’t argue with that.

Is the neighbor himself an alien? If so, the invaders are not so alien after all, They’re just as obnoxious, argumentative, and self-entered as everyone else. Point taken, but is it necessary to make a film about alienation that’s alienating as well?

?½ ALIENATED

Written and directed by Brian Ackley. Starring Jen Burry, George Katt, Taylor Negron. At the Somerville Theatre. 80 minutes. Unrated.

Peter Keough can be reached at petervkeough@gmail.com.