The internet is a ruthless killer. Its convenience has strangled retail, shoved a dagger through the heart of newspapers, put a bullet through the brain of the recording industry…et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The internet has even done a number on the movie business. Hollywood spent a long time consolidating releases into megaplexes, crowding out older theaters and independent distributors in the process. The megaplex killed both the drive-in, and its greatest contributor, regional cinema.
But, lo and behold, it is the internet, normally such a destructive force for prior forms of business, that has saved regional cinema. It’s possible now to shoot a movie digitally and get it onto a streaming platform, bypassing big Hollywood gatekeeping. Low budget b-filmmakers from the furthest reaches of the country are back, just like when they were polluting drive-in and grindhouse screens back in the 20th century. Which brings us to Alien Sniperess.
She’s not an alien who snipes. Rather, she snipes aliens. Olivia Okoro stars as Chioma, an army sniper, in writer/director Joseph Mbah’s alien invasion epic. This movie clearly was made for pennies, so there isn’t much in the way of alien creatures. Rather, the aliens are slug-like things reminiscent of Night of the Creeps, or Slither. They arrived on Earth via meteorites, and the slugs crawl into a person through their mouth and take over their brains. So, when Chioma is sniping aliens, she’s putting bullets through people. The alien invasion in this flick is more infection than laser-wielding horde.
In the midst of personal tragedy, Chioma is on leave when the invasion/outbreak begins. She’s road tripping with her dead fiance’s brother, Aaron (Sean Laguna), and her besties from high school, sisters Kel and Liz (Alaina Latham and Camille Kerber). Later, she’s joined by mechanic Lucas (Doug Savage), who passes for this flick’s resident 
tough guy. The small budget keeps the road trip short, contributing to this flick’s regional bona fides. Congratulations, Gila County, Arizona. Welcome to the world of shitty movies.
Mbah is no master storyteller. He relies heavily on personal tragedy in his characters’ backgrounds. So much so that it’s all the character development these folks get. By my tally, across all the main players, there are five dead parents, one MIA father (unclear if that’s in a military or colloquial sense), one abusive father, and one dopefiend mother. The details don’t matter. What does matter is that Mbah forces us to sit through multiple scenes while his characters expound on past trauma. It’s not like they have something else to worry about at the moment.
When not sharing, the characters do a lot of driving, a lot of walking, and, on occasion, battling with infected humans. Chioma is calm, cool, and collected throughout, her character’s conceit that she is a meditative sniper, going so far as to remove her boots before she goes prone. All that’s missing is a complete Lululemon ensemble, a yoga mat, and an iced chai latte. It really is that absurd.
There is action, there is grief, and then a final confrontation with the alien hivemind.
This is bottom of the barrel filmmaking. There are no recognizable names anywhere in the production. The script is slow and filled with all that tragic claptrap. Locations are dressed so poorly that it’s easy to tell when someone’s cheap apartment living room is standing in for a hospital room. And the acting talent? Eh, I’m done shitting on this movie. This is a movie that I think of as iPhone quality. The advances in tech this century have made it possible for anyone with motivation to make a movie for less than the cost of a decent vacation. All that’s required is hard work and dedication, and I’m sure Mbah and company had that. I will always be impressed when someone goes out and shoots a movie. What I don’t have to do is blow smoke. This film stinks, and no one involved in it should ever expect a fruitful career in the entertainment business.
Alien Sniperess falls way down into the depths of the Watchability Index, displacing The Amityville Curse at #515. This is one for the shitty movie mutants only.