In 1984, a then-unknown James Cameron brought us The Terminator, a sci-fi film that instantly became a classic. Two years later, he followed that up with a long-awaited sequel to Alien, simply titled Aliens, which also hit big. Of course, years prior, many filmmakers made their own films trying to capitalize on Ridley Scott’s slasher in space. B-movie kingpin Roger Corman brought us titles like Forbidden World and Galaxy of Terror, which Cameron actually worked on. Over in Italy, there was Ciro Ippolito’s Alien 2: On Earth and the more infamous Contamination from Luigi Cozzi. After the release of Cameron’s Aliens, there weren’t too many knock-offs produced in its wake, despite its massive success. However, in 1989, Italian filmmakers Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso teamed up for a mash-up of Aliens and The Terminator. That film was the sci-fi action film Shocking Dark, also known as Terminator 2. (Yes, really!)
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In the distant future, Venice has been hit with pollution, and is under the control of the Tubular Corporation. One day, one of their facilities is attacked by some strange underground creatures, and a team is sent to investigate. The team is comprised of Dr. Sara Drumbull (Haven Tyler), some civilians, and the Mega Force, an elite combat team. With Mega Force member Koster (Geretta Geretta) leading the team, they investigate the base to find hideous monsters running amok. While exploring, they find a little girl named Samantha (Dominica Coulson), who’s been surviving after the monsters killed her parents. As the Mega Force are killed one by one, team member Samuel Fuller (Christopher Ahrens) is revealed to be cybernetic. Turns out he’s been sent by the Tubular Corporation to cover up that the monsters were their creation. It’s up to Sara and Samantha to stop them and prevent the pollution.
Make no mistake, Shocking Dark is absolutely a rip-off of Aliens with elements of The Terminator thrown in. There’s the advanced combat team, the female lead, a young orphan girl, an evil corporation, monsters, and even a cyborg. As for The Terminator, not only is there an evil cyborg, there’s also some time travel in the last act. It’s pretty clear why this wasn’t released in the States until recently when Severin Films released the film on blu-ray. Had Shocking Dark been originally released in the States, there probably would’ve been at least one lawsuit against the filmmakers. Honestly, there really isn’t much to talk about since the plot is essentially the same plot as Aliens. To their credit, the filmmakers were told by their producers to intentionally rip off Aliens and The Terminator. Honestly, this isn’t surprising since that was the case with most Italian exploitation films back then.
Acting wise, there isn’t much to say, other than it ranges from decent to laughably ridiculous, but nothing outright awful. Geretta Geretta, clearly channeling Jeanette Goldstein in Aliens, is still the highlight here and has some of the best lines. Haven Tyler is fine but nothing special, and Dominica Coulson’s indefinable accent just adds to the ridiculousness on display. Speaking of, even before he’s revealed to be a cyborg, Christopher Ahrens acts very robotic and doesn’t have much emotion. Compared to other 80s Italian exploitation, Shocking Dark is surprisingly tame, with very little to no gore and nothing sexual. It almost feels like a live-action Saturday morning cartoon or a slightly updated 50s cheesy sci-fi movie. While I’ve been pretty critical here, it’s still worth a watch so long as you know what you’re getting into. Overall, Shocking Dark is a shameless yet strangely entertaining piece of sequel-sploitation.
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