![](https://vhstracking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/dark-breed-04.jpg?w=1024)
Delving further into the world of PM Entertainment productions was a highlight for me of 2023, a repository for direct-to-video B-grade action schlock from the 1980s and 1990s, where they put the money on the screen with the amount of explosions featured, cars flipped on the streets and stunt-people flung through the air. My compulsion for more 90s cyberpunk action led me to PM Entertainment greats like T-Force and Hologram Man, and there’s something wonderful when PM Entertainment meets sci-fi. There’s a 1990s TV look to these movies and they often feel like an X-Files episode just with a higher budget for explosions and stunt-work, and this is the case for Dark Breed (1996), which is basically a photocopy mash-up of Aliens, Species and Predator 2.
A crew of astronauts (all with large American flags emblazoned on the backs of their jumpsuits) crash-land back on Earth after a mission in outer space, and are immediately hunted by the military. Something has contaminated the astronauts, and as evidenced by the cheap reptile eye contact lenses they give the actors, whatever it is ain’t local! It’s up to former astronaut military man Jack Scalia to save the day, stop an alien invasion of Earth as well as a government conspiracy to harvest the alien eggs for biological weapons. Oh yeah, and Scalia’s ex-wife (Donna W. Scott) was one of the astronauts(!) and she’s possessed by one of the good aliens thankfully! While this is a pretty stock plot with all the cliches, Dark Breed is an enjoyable time, especially with the fun action sequences. The first act has a night-time freeway truck chase including a helicopter and a fist-fight in a model home being carried by a truck. Then, later at the end of the second act is a daytime car chase where Jack Scalia winds up being pulled along the roads on broken satellite dish tied to the back of a van – definitely a case of the stunt team working backwards to ensure that stunt is in the movie whether it makes sense or not! You’ve also got casual use of rocket launchers, giant meca-machine guns with harnesses, gooey green alien eggs and reptilian creatures grabbing people in dripping warehouses. Oh, and even a wino played by George Buck Flower, king of the movie winos!
Most notable star in the cast is the great character actor Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul) as the leader of the astronauts, with half of his scenes distorting his voice to make him sound more alien (and he would have been a perfect guest star on The X-Files). This is the third PM Entertainment movie with Scalia as the hero and I like his slick-haired, tough-guy persona, and he always meets the material with a serious energy; he’s not checked out or looking down at this trash genre fare. There’s a bit of (unintentionally) funny dialogue and weird digressions like when our hero’s ex-wife now possessed by a good alien meets him at a diner and does a variation of the Five Easy Pieces scene when she can’t order a pizza for breakfast. Directed by Richard Pepin who is responsible for most of the PM Entertainment I’ve seen at this point.
Available to stream on Tubi (US). Recommended.