The Alpha Test (2020) User Reviews

A good film, if it was put together by a 5th grade drama class

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 3/10 · 11 March 2020]

This isn't director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor Aaron Mirtes' first time dabble in filmmaking, but you would think it was.

I get this was obviously put together on a micro budget, but the majority of the flaws could've easily been avoided - even by a 5th grade drama class.

For starters the writing and dialogue was just infantile in some scenes. Many plot and technical issues. The story itself had some opportunity, but that was clearly messed up in the screenplay.

The cinematography was adequate, but Mirtes failed miserably in directing his cast, and had some wacked out camera angles. The score was actually not bad nor overbearing, but the overall sound was shallow and distant. You can rent a couple of boom mics for chump change ya know.

I will however say, that although rudimentary, Alpha's android head was creepy af, and worked really well, especially with the voice and color changing light on the back.

I am disappointed at Mirtes' final cut, especially since I've seen some stellar films from amateur/newb filmmakers lately such as Guns Akimbo, Villain, Blood on Her Name and Foxtrot Six - all new and amateur filmmakers. This film is a generous 3/10 from me.

Darryl Hannah Is A Robot!!!

[omendata · 4/10 · 11 March 2020]

Is it just me or is the robot the spitting image of Darryl Hannah? This just made the robot even more disturbing than it actually was.

I always try and review a movie based on its budget as well as everything else and this was not too bad compared to some of the utter garbage that is flooding onto Netflix etc lately.

First off; yes the acting is not stellar from most of the participants but the Robot was well acted and performed. I have to disagree with previous reviewers about the sound - no idea where they get the idea that the sound was poor as I did not notice. Don't expect CGI as there isn't any and the blood effects looked like dilute tomato sauce or fired from a paintball gun which I am sure the shotgun effects at the end actually were!

As for the other reviewer comment on "white men" - whoosh that one went way over my head. Just sit back and enjoy the movie and try and not read too much into things that are not there.

Its a brave effort for an ultra low budget and gets a fair 4/10 from me!

Hey, let's invent a domestic robot but make it look scary as hell ;)

[future_release · 3/10 · 13 March 2020]

Terrible movie in every respect that I've watched so you don't have to. You're welcome :)

So bad it's....nah it's just bad.

[jacobwolpert · 1/10 · 14 March 2020]

If you ever wondered what an episode of Black Mirror directed by Tommy Wiseau would look like, watch this film for a laugh.

Robot or a person with a ridiculous rubber mask????

[bernardomoliveira · 1/10 · 13 March 2020]

Even the lowest budget movie has rules!!!! The movie synopsis and cover art made think that this could be an interesting movie, but hey.....no way, its a guy with a rubber mask (not metalll or carbon fiber??) that looks like a cake about to melt..... So this totally gets me out of the story and makes me look for more flaws. Just look at the trailer.......what a b#"$%34hit!!!!

Dont waste your time with this!!!!!!

Low Budget Comedy With Plastic Mask People

[zac-68274 · 1/10 · 13 March 2020]

Wish I could remove the memory of pitiful amateur actors or the robots that forget they're playing robots and talk in their regular voice. The entire movie was pathetic from start to finish!

student (young) effort

[japseyee · 2/10 · 17 March 2020]

Infantile film/script. don't waste your time watching this, it's a couple of hours of your life you'll never get back

Giving it 10 minutes of your time would be generous

[sjschluet · 12 February 2022]

Wow. Just awful wow. Not believable in a single aspect. They have tech to make these androids but they make it look as horrifyingly uncanny valley as possible and give it the voice of a computer from 1985.

And the people act like they've never seen an android, as if they just popped out of nowhere.

Then there's the dialogue and characters.... yeesh.

Let's make a miserable story and a weak scenario and put a bloody robot in it

[droctopuslegendary · 1/10 · 19 April 2020]

Let us agree that it is one of the films with a low budget and this does not defect the weakness of the capabilities presented in the film, but when it comes to the story and the directing, this is the worst movie I have seen, but I can say that I liked the shape of robot.

How can some people give this 9/10 stars?

[scottogilvie · 2/10 · 2 February 2021]

This movie is terrible, bad acting, stupid looking robot, stupid plot and probably the worse sin you can have in a movie that characters that make no sense and don't make rational human decisions. It's so cheap in horror movies when the main characters make decisions that a caveman wouldn't, when there's no survival instinct at all.

How can people give this 10/10 saying it's pretty good? You saying this is one of the best movies you have ever seen lol? This should get a 5 at best if you found anything enjoyable in this pile of bad writing

Just don't

[sonodaalex · 2/10 · 12 March 2020]

Was this homemade? Some almost clever ideas... The acting is (partially) bad, the storyline is between mediocre and horrible. Overall it looks like you are watching a high school film project. Just go spend your time somewhere else!

Alpha- When Alexa Goes Rogue

[femmete · 8/10 · 17 July 2021]

As a connoisseur of horror and B-movies in general, having a background in acting in quite a few, I get what it means to make a movie like this. My husband and I picked it up at a dollar store and thought it sounded good. The budget may not have been huge but the passion was there; the need to make something that someone believed in, was refreshing. I was more sad than scared as the character plays out like a Batman villain, tragically. I really enjoyed this film, and I get what they were doing here. I applaud the makeup effects artist as well, as Alpha looked like what you might expect an early stage, "Alexa-like" robot to resemble. Keep it up, good work!

Better than its (current) rating

[imdb-18809 · 6/10 · 6 April 2021]

When I watched this, it had a score of 3.2 stars. Honestly, it's worth more than that.

The acting is not exactly great, although it does seem to get better as it goes through the film. The production values are pretty good (sound, score, camera work etc.. are all good) and any limitations do not get in the way of the story, but does show what can be achieved with a limited budget. The story is a bit predictable, but does have a couple of nice subtle twists.

Overall impression is that I do not regret watching it, but I doubt I would watch it again on my own volition.

Similar to the Child's Play reboot

[Draysan-Jennings · 4/10 · 18 March 2020]

Despite the terrible acting this movie actually held my attention. Although it ended up getting really bad about half way into it. I still managed to watch it until the end. It kinda reminded me of the recent Child's Play film. The robot could actually learn and had feelings. You could tell where the movie was going from the get go. The robot makes friends with the daughter. Robot gets bullied by the rest of the family. Robot kills family to make daughter happy. Cheesy and predictable. 4 stars! Don't bother..

Doesn't make any sense, people are fake as the robot

[yavoyavo · 1/10 · 24 March 2020]

Imagine buying a robot from a horror movie as your maid, you wouldn't, the movie is so misconceived there is no point after that decision. I mean really, not only is it horrifying, its incompetent, the rest of the cast behaves like they don't notice so the entire thing feels contrived, its just fake.

It's a comedy. No one behaves this way.

[rushknight · 2/10 · 26 April 2020]

This movie is not about a robot. It's about human beings being human.

Remember Star Trek? Not just the first one, but ALL of them? In every version of Star Trek there is a character who works in some way as a reflector of the human condition. Spock, 7-of-9, Kes, Data, Q, each of these characters constantly questioned every human about their reasoning and behavior, and ultimately strove (Data especially) to become more human, and in so doing forced other humans to examine and define their humanness.

Alpha is exactly the same sort of character, except she makes even less sense than any of the others. The great Sci-Fi writer Isaac Asimov conjectured that any autonomous robot ever built would have to be built with three primary directives in place. These directives became known as "Asimov's Laws."

First Law A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

While not openly cited, the spirit of these three laws is still commonplace in popular Sci-Fi movies about androids, but here in this film they seem to be lacking. Alpha has no concept of what it means to harm anyone or anything, which is and of itself a gigantic plot hole. No company would ever produce an autonomous entity that is capable of harming other people and simply put it into people's homes without even the most basic understanding of how human beings behave. Very silly on its face. It's like giving children a loaded gun and admonishing them not to get hurt with it.

And getting back to the human-mirror part, Alpha receives several conflicting orders from each human she associates with, and cannot make sense of the illogical reasoning and irrational emotions of her human owners, and thusly turns inward for her own answers. A classic "flawed humanity" tale in the same spirit as every season of "The Outer Limits," where about 80% of the episodes ended with the destruction of Earth on account of some basic human failing.

Bad costuming and special effects aside, this tale could have had some merit. After all, I have cited three very successful shows/novelists who were successful using the same idea. But unfortunately this film is poorly acted and scripted. The human characters involved are completely shallow and deliberately expose their flaws to the robot and the audience, ostensibly to get us to side with the robot I suppose. The robot is completely unbelievable, not only from the acting and costuming, but as a character itself. From the very get-go she does not behave as a robot would, and she has feeeeeelings? Riiight.

I wanted to like this movie, I love low budget inventiveness, but unfortunately this movie is just simply not well done. Plus the blood looks like teriyaki sauce.

What a shame

[miro-911-292076 · 1/10 · 17 March 2020]

What a shame. Complete waist of time. The characters Sound engineers Director producers should be ashamed of themselves to make a movie like this. Even with a low budget it is possible to make a great movie. But this movie is the worst that I have watched in my entire life.

Straight to VHS!

[khunkrumark · 4/10 · 2 June 2021]

'Daryl Hannah' stars in a sci-fi movie made by legendary director Tommy Wissau and remastered so it looks and sounds like it was made in 1977!

When you add the running gag about how to open beer bottles, you have a movie masterpiece worthy of Smithsonian protection.

Or... this is just awful and I was high when I watched it!

A solid 10 minutes before switching off

[mikecopeland-99338 · 2/10 · 4 March 2022]

Awful. I literally hate every character on the screen, including the ridiculous robot. There is an idea for a film here somewhere but this isn't it.........

Terrible writing and directing

[moviessunday-54194 · 1/10 · 2 April 2022]

In a dystopian world where laws of Physics no longer matter, items appear where they shouldn't be, language has been shaved to the intelligence of a person with an IQ of less than 30, people almost never struggle when they are threatened, and any problem can apparently be solved with a simple "f#<k you" or f#<k (add verb here). Comes the alpha project, a movie written and directed by what was apparently a 4 year old trying to understand how to use there potty mouth,

If you haven't seen Aaron Martes'es other films don't worry, they are shamelessly plugged as often as possible throughout the movie, while the concept for the story could be good, this team managed to waste everyone involved in the creation of this films time, and someone's money (hopefully it was Aarons own money so he can't afford to make anything else) and now attempts to waste your time watching this. With maybe one of the worst scripts ever, directed in a fashion that will make you want to scream "no one talks like that, why is she smiling while delivering what should have been a serious line, why would that action be so slow, no one would ever react like that" and many more fun things to shout at the person who just wasted the last 2 hours of your life, you will not enjoy this film if you have anything close to a sensible mind!

Wow, where do I even start?

[lilybugmccain · 1/10 · 1 April 2023]

This movie was horrible, it's low budget which isn't bad if you do it right but god this movie sucked. The acting was horrible, this entire movie made me feel like I was watching some YouTube skit by some family channel for kids. The robot doesn't even act like a robot, don't even get me started on its design. I'm halfway through the movie and I really don't even think I can finish it. The thumbnail looked really good but the movie is definitely not worth the watch. Very boring and uninteresting. So many flaws. Hear me out, this movie is definitely as bad as people are making it out to be. I would not suggest watching. Really sucks cause I was excited to watch this from the thumbnail, sill of me not to watch the trailer first.

Fun ride for a low budget film

[Chao_Rox · 8/10 · 12 March 2020]

This is a pretty straightforward sci-fi robot goes nuts horror film. There are some flaws but they are not distracting in any way.

This does answer the question of what could happen if machine learning had poor boundaries. The robot is essentially abused by everyone but the daughter, and that leads to the obvious next step.

The daughter and robot had a great dynamic and really brought the overall feel of the movie up.

All in all I found the movie to be lots of fun.

And as the other positive reviewer said, nope I was not involved in this production in any way.

Nowhere near as bad as people are making out..

[jamiedee-45573 · 7/10 · 12 March 2020]

Yes it's cheap, yes some of the acting is awful, but you need to enjoy it for what it is which is a cool little sci-fi flick.. I actually enjoyed it.. the robot was creepy and the film in general was entertaining.. those who can't look past bad acting and low budget should avoid.. myself found it good for a low budget sci-fi film..

And NO I don't work on the production team before anyone starts! 🙄

Great story - bad directing

[nickpedersen · 4/10 · 30 May 2020]

This story is so very very interesting. A robot that learns from its behaviour. Damn this movie could have been good... Could have....... They messed up in the instruction, directing, and producing. The robots learning process is rushed. The humiliation of the robot is rushed, and dont bring any feelings from the viewers. And when it fights back there is no build up, or excitement to it.... I was very disappointed. I give it four for the good idea.

It's a surprise

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 19 March 2020]

The film opens with a teaser of an Alpha robot gone on a killing spree and then back to three weeks earlier when the Alpha home assistant is introduced. JD (Brad Belemjian) got her from work. The Alpha (Rae Hunt) makes friends with Lily (Bella Martin) a picked-on teen. (Try to find one who claims they have it easy.) They form an alliance with deadly consequences.

The film never developed characters. The plot and dialogue were juvenile. The acting was wooden because the direction was poor. Basically everything Aaron Mirtes touched turned to crap. Lily needed a major league babe sister who picked on her.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.