Harry Bromley Davenport’s Xtro (1982) is a true tour de force. Davenport utilizes all of the most nightmarish aspects of the horror film to put into images the childhood trauma of abandonment. Made on a relatively low budget, Xtro has been a cult classic almost since its release. Often compared to Steven Spielberg’s E.T.The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Xtro dispenses with all sentimentality and takes a Freudian approach to the concept of a paternal surrogate coming in the guise of an alien.
Xtro takes its body horror to new, inventive directions. The mutations and mutilations follow a kind of child logic. Misunderstandings of sex, gender, and the roles that those social signifiers play are all a jumble. The result is one surrealistic display of anatomy after the other. Form is amorphous yet fragile, permanent but fleeting. Mortality is the single central concern of the film and how it becomes manifested in the eye of the subconscious.
A child’s sense of “not knowing” is central to what makes Xtro so effective. Children know so little of the adult society that surrounds them, yet they grasp loosely the causality of adults’ actions. This is the basis of the sequence where Analise (Maryam d’Abo) is cocooned and transformed into an “egg factory”. It is also reiterated in Tony’s (Simon Nash) telekinetic animation of his toys. These playthings take on the role judge, jury and executioner in grisly fashion; acting out Tony’s desires no matter how misguided or misplaced they are.
Davenport frames the film to effectively conceal budget constraints but also to evoke a morbid atmosphere. This imbues the images of Freudian fantasy with a danger that slowly escalates until the inevitable climax. Xtro, a phenomenal example of practical effects, oozes and bleeds in every frame like a nightmare that’s been an object of obsession for years.
