Not knowing what incredible horror movies the next decade would bring, audiences would be treated to this slice of science fiction and horror courtesy of Greydon Clark. Without Warning might not have been the best indicator of those future flicks, but it was pretty entertaining, mainly due to its cast, which included Martin Landau and Jack Palance among its members.

When a film begins with people dying, it does not bode well for the main characters who are about to follow. Yet, the movie proceeds with a bunch of teens heading out to the mountains after being warned not to, and lo and behold, they end up getting into more trouble than they bargained for. Furthermore, when the monster is revealed, it will come to mind, and there will be those who will compare it to Predator. That movie, being the more famous of the two, is the one that cannot help but draw comparisons; however, this feature would obviously predate it, and thus the contrast would be incorrect, at least in the way they should be scrutinized. The reason is that the big bad in this picture kills its victims with flying discs, which just so happen to have tentacles on them. The said discs then incapacitate their victims, after which the alien claims its prey and takes them back to its base, which is merely an old shed, seemingly located in the middle of nowhere. The discs and the fact that the alien is a hunter of sorts are where the parallels end; perhaps it is a little unfair to ponder the two together, but it simply cannot be helped.

At one point in the film, the two surviving kids, played by Tarah Nutter and Christopher S. Nelson, seek help and encounter two very different characters. One is of unsound mind, as portrayed by the aforementioned Landau, and the man definitely knows how to play the role of a crazy person. The two soon discover that Landau’s Dobbs is not the man they need, and they soon come back into contact with the owner of the truck stop, named Joe Taylor, who may be the only one who can save them. Palance plays Joe, and his performance, as well as that of Landau’s, makes this picture worth watching on its own. Sure, it is not the A-level material that people will be used to seeing them star in, but it ends up being quite fun, not to mention a little cheesy at times. It is not overly exciting, but there is a good atmosphere about, and there is a constant tension throughout that continues to rise as the alien hunts them down one by one. Due to all of that, one cannot help but feel for the victims and feel the horror they feel as those discs come flying at them. The special effects are better than they should be, and it is pretty gruesome to see the discs sucking the life out of those they attach themselves to. The alien itself is kept offscreen for most of the picture, and as evidenced in many a film before this one, that is a good thing, as the unknown is often far more frightening than that which is shown.

There are those factors within that could have made this a far better picture than it was, like a script that was a little more serious in nature, dialogue, and even acting in some places. That aside, it was not all bad, and there was nothing that would actually prevent anyone from sitting through the whole affair. Campy, crazy, yet fun and filled with a few chills, Without Warning is a good time.

3 out of 5