| The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review |
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| Science-Fiction |
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THE SECOND ARRIVAL
aka
THE ARRIVAL II
Rating: 
USA/Canada. 1998.
Director – Kevin S. Tenney, Screenplay – Mark David Perry, Producer – Claudio Castravelli, Photography – Bruno Philip, Music – Ned Bouhalassa, Visual Effects – Sundog Films, Special Effects – Les Productions de L’Intrigue Inc, Makeup Effects – Texa FX Group Inc, Production Design – Jean Kazeminchuk. Production Company – Live Entertainment/Taurus 7 Film Group/Rootbeer Films Inc.
Cast:
Patrick Muldoon (Jack Addison), Jane Sibbett (Bridget Riordan), Michael Sarrazin (Professor Nelson Zarkoff), Catharine Blythe (Sandra Wolfe), Mike Scherer (Wotan), Larry Day (Burke), Steve Adams (Dave Cyrus), Emidio Michetti (Trevor Aguilar)
Plot: After the death of astronomer Zane Zaminski, who believed that aliens were attempting to take over the world, several people receive an invitation to a meeting at an abandoned plant in Montreal. One of the group is Zane’s step-brother Jack Addison, who shows the group an alien device left by Zane that contains a hologram displaying the alien’s plans to alter the Earth’s environment. But one of the group proves to be an alien infiltrator and Jack and journalist Bridget Riordan are forced to go on the run with the device, while the aliens erase all their credit and have the police hunt them as spies and killers.
David Twohy’s The Arrival (1996) was a modest hit, it being a quite effective delve into the alien takeover paranoia genre created by tv’s The X Files (1993-2002). Although it was an effort that had more critical acclaim than it really did a widespread audience. This sequel is a Canadian co-financed production, shot in Montreal. The director is Kevin S. Tenney, who had made several low-budget horror films such as Witchboard (1986), Night of the Demons (1987), Peacemaker (1990) and Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996).
The Second Arrival is much more low key entry than The Arrival. Tenney rarely evokes any of the eerieness that Twohy did. There’s a fine sequence near the beginning that bodes well for the film – a group of people are sent a message to secretly meet in a meat locker, followed by the momentary activation of the hologram and the revelation of a virtual space station (although the film is never too clear what a virtual space station is), then the cold temperature revealing one of the party to be an alien infiltrator as his face starts cracking and the activation of one of the vortex bombs and the attempts of the various parties to escape as the locker starts getting sucked in around them. There are one or two effective twists and scenes subsequently – notably a mechanical bug hunting Michael Sarrazin in his hotel room – that maintain the promise. But gradually the film gives way to a lot of formula scenes – people turning out to be alien, the hero and heroine blamed for crimes and forced to go on the run as their identities are erased. In lieu of the unworldly eerieness of Twohy’s film, what we have now are car chases and lots of running about buildings. This sort of tries but there’s not enough here that manages to escape the wholly formulaic.
Copyright Richard Scheib 2001
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