X-Files fever was spreading just as this movie hit, so naturally critics opted for the facile comparison. But audiences took their shots too, so it crashed-landed at the box office. And adding salt to injury, Independence Day happened a few weeks later. What remained was sent to home video for its autopsy.
There was a glut of space-invading paranormal plots on tv and video store shelves around this time, so it wasn’t always easy separating the chaff from the stuff, especially with Xtro 3 and X-Files sharing wall space.
But writer-director and auteur David (The Fugitive, Pitch Black) Twohy created something special, something that spent decades just hiding in plain sight.
If you’re jonesing to close-encounter with an alien artifact that looks good on the shelf with Communion, Contact or Fire in the Sky – perhaps with a 90’s sheen to it – The Arrival will definitely get you there. -Pop
The arrival, um, arrived on home video this week in 1996, after an uneventful May 31st theatrical release.