The Recall
Tagline: "They've come to claim what's theirs"
Director: Mauro Borrelli
Release Year: 2017
Runtime: 91 min
Streaming Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
Plot Summary: When five friends vacation at a remote lake house, they expect nothing less then a good time, unaware that Earth is under attack by an alien invasion and mass-abductions.
Holidays:
- Labor Day
During a time when strange atmospheric disturbances are occurring at various locales around the globe, a group of teenagers go on a vacation trip to a secluded cottage in the woods. At a filling station along the way they have a bad encounter with a man (Wesley Snipes) who calls himself "The Hunter". At the cottage, the teenagers begin exploring and come across a seemingly abandoned cabin. Inside, they find pictures and realize it's the Hunter's house, and furthermore, that he was formerly an astronaut. When he returns unexpectedly they sneak out and run away.
That night, when the Hunter shows up in the woods outside their cottage, they believe he is there to attack them. One of them, Rob (Niko Pepaj), goes to the car to get his gun, but on the way back he sees an alien under the porch and panics but he doesn't tell his friends. Later, during the atmospheric disturbances, they see a glow of light. Only Kara seems to know what it is, and seems terrified of it. When an alien enters the house, Rob panics and accidentally shoots Kara. He breaks down and turns on his friends. Charlie stops him by rendering him unconscious. The remaining friends run for the car and drive away in panic. When Rob suddenly appears in the road, Charlie swerves to avoid him and crashes the car. They watch from the wreckage as a UFO appears and abducts Rob, allowing the others to make their escape.
Unbeknownst to the teenagers, the Aliens have come to Earth,
abducting thousands of humans. On the run from the aliens with the others, Brendan is injured by a bear trap placed by the Hunter. The Hunter appears and saves them from a pursuing alien, and takes them back to his cabin. The Hunter ambushes an alien in a pit and seems to take personal pleasure in killing it. The Hunter explains that he was abducted and experimented-on by the aliens years ago. He shows them scarifications left on his body by the aliens; furthermore, he demonstrates that he can move objects telekinetically. He explains that the aliens have visited Earth several times in the distant past, and through "enhancements" made to abductees, have controlled the evolution of life on Earth. Since his retirement as an astronaut he has been preparing for their return, dedicating himself to putting an end to their reign.
But the aliens besiege the cabin and the teenagers all end up being taken up to the spaceship, where they are among a few thousand humans who are abducted, experimented on, then returned to Earth. The teenagers all wake up back at their cottage, with no memory of having been abducted or experimented on. Kara, who had been killed, also appears to be alive and well. On the road, they are stopped by a military roadblock; although the alien ships have departed as mysteriously as they'd arrived, the government has responded to the mass abductions by putting a plan in place to quarantine anyone who shows the telltale scarifications from having been abducted. When the soldiers attack, with the help of the Hunter the teenagers using their alien-given "enhancements" slaughter the soldiers, instead.
Notes
Sometimes you stumble across a movie that has no business being as entertaining as it is. *The Recall* (2017) is one of those films—a bizarre genre-bending ride that starts as typical teen horror and ends up somewhere completely different. And honestly? It works mostly because Wesley Snipes is having the time of his life.
*The Recall* opens with the most generic setup imaginable: young adults heading to a remote lake house for a Labor Day weekend getaway. You're expecting the usual cabin-in-the-woods slasher formula, complete with bad decisions and predictable deaths. It's like the filmmakers are deliberately setting you up for one kind of movie before pulling the rug out from under you.
What makes this Labor Day weekend different from your typical horror movie holiday? Well, instead of a masked killer stalking the friends, they get a full-scale alien invasion. The movie specifically takes place during Labor Day weekend, which adds an extra layer of irony—what should be a relaxing end-of-summer celebration becomes a fight for humanity's survival.
But then weird stuff starts happening. There are strange lights in the sky, mysterious disappearances, and Wesley Snipes shows up as some kind of alien-hunting conspiracy theorist. Before you know it, you're watching a full-blown alien invasion movie. It's like the filmmakers decided to pull a fast one on both the characters and the audience.
Let's be real—without Wesley Snipes, this movie would be completely forgettable. But the man shows up and just goes for it. He's chewing scenery, delivering one-liners, and treating his role as an eccentric "Hunter" character like he's in a much better movie.
Multiple reviews point out that Snipes is basically carrying the entire film on his shoulders. Every scene he's in becomes instantly more watchable. While the young cast struggles with generic dialogue and thin character development, Snipes is out here making the most of what he's got.
For a low-budget B-movie, *The Recall* has some genuinely creepy alien moments. The probe scene under the porch is legitimately unsettling, and the spaceship abduction sequences have an eerie atmosphere that elevates them above typical sci-fi schlock.
The aliens themselves aren't just generic gray visitors either. There's actual thought put into their design and the way they operate, which makes the genre shift feel less jarring than it could have been.
Without spoiling too much, *The Recall* doesn't end where you think it will. The survivors return home, but they're... different. Branded with alien markings and sporting new abilities, the film suddenly pivots into something resembling a superhero origin story.
It's a bold swing that either works for you or doesn't, but you have to admire the ambition. How many low-budget horror movies try to completely reframe their entire premise in the final act?
Look, *The Recall* isn't going to win any awards for writing or acting (Snipes aside). It hits plenty of horror clichés, the dialogue can be rough, and some of the plot decisions are questionable at best.
But here's the thing about B-movies—sometimes the charm is in the rough edges. If you go in expecting *Arrival* or *District 9*, you're going to be disappointed. But if you're in the mood for some cheesy sci-fi with a charismatic lead and genuinely weird ideas, *The Recall* delivers.
*The Recall* is the kind of movie that's perfect for a late-night streaming binge when you want something different. It's not great cinema, but it's entertaining cinema—and sometimes that's exactly what you need.
Plus, Wesley Snipes hunting aliens is a premise that sells itself. The man deserves credit for taking what could have been a throwaway paycheck role and turning it into the movie's biggest asset.
If you're looking for serious science fiction, skip this one. But if you want to see a movie that genuinely surprises you with where it goes, *The Recall* might be exactly the weird little gem you didn't know you were looking for.