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Indie Trailer Sunday: Clay Liford's Indie Sci-Fi Film Earthling

by Alex Billington
February 14, 2010
Source: YouTube

As a big fan of the sci-fi genre, I usually hunt for every indie sci-fi film I can find, and today we have a new one to introduce to you. CHUD premiered a teaser trailer for a film called Earthling, written and directed by Clay Liford, about a group of people aboard the international space station who discover that the lives they have been living are all a lie. They're not human, they're aliens and now they must decide whether to keep on living as men or find a way back home. Just like Duncan Jones' Moon, I love seeing how much they can accomplish on a limited budget, and this looks great. Looking forward to seeing this as soon as I can.

Watch the first teaser trailer for Clay Liford's Earthling:

After a mysterious atmospheric occurrence aboard the international space station causes a tragic event, a small group of people wake up to realize that their entire lives have been a lie. They are in fact aliens disguised as humans. Now they have to make a choice: Live amongst men, or try to find a way back home.

Earthling is both written and directed by New York City-born filmmaker Clay Liford, who directed a few comedic short films and was a cinematographer before making his feature directorial debut with this. The film is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival next month, which is where we'll see some of the first reviews as well. There is also an official website that you can check out by clicking right here. Anyone interested?

Explore tags: Indies, To Watch, Trailers

http://www.myspace.com/tristandrue Tristan

I have to be honest, I wanted to see this movie just until I saw the trailer.
FancyMonocle

Interesting premise, kinda dull trailer. I'm still curious enough to want to see it.
Christ

Good trailer. Interesting enough for a low budget sci-fi film. Nice photography, art direction and light. I'm in.
Xerxex

that trailer killed it, but I still want to see the film. If anything I'll see it for Peter Greene, the guy to me is very underrated.
Cody

Easily the worst trailer Ive ever seen holy shit.
Sonny

wow way too much action and they practicley showed the whole movie **sarcasm**
history repeats

story looked good, trailer looked horrible.
http://www.madeinreading.blogspot.com matt

pretty much the same as everyone else has said, moon is a high standard to compare this to
Ron

I can't believe that synopsis and that trailer are for the same movie! The story sounds good but the trailer makes absolutely no sense! That is bad advertising right there!
kLO

Terrible. I'd rather have Michael Bay take a dump on my chest, than be forced to sit through this.
Ian Kuah

I loved the trailer. And this premise sounds amazing. Why do we judge films by the trailer? Honestly, I do it too. But why? I try to keep an open mind, and when a trailer is strange, it intrigues me even more to want to see the film. This trailer does it for me. I'm in for this film.
beavis

the story premise and teaser seem to be completely unrelated...............uh, i don't think that's how it's supposed to work.
mike

I'm always interested in anything sci-fi but the trailer makes you think it's more of a drama than anything else. Horrible trailer imo.
GET TO DA CHOPPAAAAAA!

at 1:01, did you see the horn, or big ass pimple, coming out of the guys head? nonetheless, isn't this supposed to take place on a space station? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
leinergroove

One of the worst trailers i have ever seen in my life. It doesn't show you ANYTHING and it's not related at all with the premise of the movie...
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2408/blackbabyjesus.gif Crapola

It looks really well filmed and the characters seemed good, so I'll wait to see more.
Phil

You've all lost your minds. The whole purpose of a trailer is to SPARK YOUR INTEREST, not show you the whole movie in two minutes! I loved this trailer because of the fact that it doesn't "show you ANYTHING." (#14)
peter T'Sas

Science fiction and action are so often confused with each other. A sad thing. I bet 99% of the American Scifi movie fans would die out of boredom watching the original Russian version of Solaris, which is way better than the cheap American version. Most of you guys are just not used to use the ol' grey matter when watching movies, ey? You just see scifi movies as a distraction and nothing else, right. No wonder Blade Runner was a flop in the States when it was originally released. Oh well, maybe one day you'll wake up realising that your brain can be used for more than your primal functions and making money. Thumbs up for that. I'll be looking forward to see more of this movie.
http://www.genreaddict.com Darren Albert

I'm going to agree with those who are saying this teaser isn't good, but I'm going to disagree with those that then think neither must be the film. The film and its premise actually look great. I'm thinking this might a case of watch the trailer with the sound off for a better experience.
Xerxex

@ peter T'Sas chill dude, you are judging an entire sub culture of American Cinephiles. Blade Runner was way ahead of its time, but now it has the strongest and most loyal fanbase ever. This trailer was not that good, but it has piqued the majority of interest on this forum.
Said

hmmmmm i dnt know for some reason it reminds me of Dreamcatcher
Black Dynamite

zzzzzz, I'd rather watch QVC.
GET TO DA CHOPPAAAAAA!

@17 we're all complaining because if not for guy in the spacesuit in the trailer, there wouldn't be any sense or connection of this film being remotely sci-fi. if the premise wasn't stated beforehand, i'd say this was a romantic film, or a thriller at best...definitely not sci-fi. we don't need action, we need some...science, not some guy rolling in the grass.
var2apo

Great trailer, the story sounds very interesting. It looks like old-school sci-fi, a psychological thriller built on suspense, meaning and performances and not on heavy CGI. I don't think we will see explosions, big bad robots and ground-shaking sound effects (hopefully!). If you don't like it rent Transformers BD... ? am looking forward for this film.
Spray On Hair

ummmm righhhhttt... Some crazy-indie-sci-fi movie where the director was on heaps of acid before, during, and heavily after filming. Or the dude that edits the trailer was on some better shit and they shared what they had.
var2apo

#25 If this is true it is not necessarily bad. Philip K. Dick one of the greatest Sci fi novelists was heavily on drugs when he wrote. It's bad for his health, sure!
Spray On Hair

lol #26 true true. But they must of done most the filming/editing in this one when they were coming down hard.
GlossGreen

OK, first off: It's a TEASER. It's supposed to tease at what is going on and not just give it all away. I've seen teaser trailers that the only thing you see of the movie is the title. This one definitely gives a bit more than some, and to me, it was more than enough to pique my interest. Who are these people? What were they doing in space? What was that object that was seen in space, and later, being held by the person in the space suit? I want to know.
Cineprog

A bit Bladerunner, E.T, type in the Storyline, Dull Trailer just shoots of diffrant peoples faces.
DEADPOOL,MERC WITH A MOUTH

that was fucking weird,the trailer was dull it didn't give to much away like most trailers do now days.i still want to see it though.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Wow sorry guys, didn't expect the reaction to this to be so negative. I thought it looked like a sleek indie sci-fi film, but I guess not?
Cody

Its not the movie as much as just the trailer itself...I mean seriously if I didnt see your description Id think this is some trippy romance flick, I dont like movies being shown in the whole trailer but damn at least try to show us what the movies about.......Id like to see the movie though cause like #17 said my interest is a bit peaked.
http://badnewsfromouterspace.blogspot.com/ Michael F.

Okay, I watched the trailer twice and came to this conclusion: Random images do not a good trailer make. If you took out the spikey meteor-thing, you'd have a bunch of sad people and an astronaut. A good trailer should draw you in either with a hint of the story, some compelling performances, an amazing set piece, SOMETHING. Alex, your write up makes me interested in this movie and not its trailer which screams "pretentious arthouse pic."
Xerxex

Alex, most of us are still interested in the final product, its just the trailer didn't give off too much info.
tully

It's a TEASER trailer you dipshits.
James M. Johnston

There's a follow up trailer here: http://gordonandthewhale.com/exclusive-sxsw-2010-earthlings-judith-trailer/#more-48200
Sharkman

The follow-up trailer is only slightly less bad. At least it has the benefit of NOT including the suicidal-thought-inducing "music" contained in the first trailer.
drnknjbbrsh

Hmmm. Sounds familiar. Humans finding out they are aliens and then trying to figure out which side they are on. I wonder if they are heading back to their mother planet called Caprica...
todd

zzzzz... I waited 10 minutes for this to load and then watched it. That's 1o minutes of my life I'll never get back. Maybe next time they toss together a trailer they can use film other than scraps from the cutting room floor. wow.
Andres Sanclemente

Damm you guys sound like you're so dogmatized by the mainstream cinema, so that when something "diferent" or "foreign" is shown, you just cant tolerate it. I think it looks realy great, kinda of like The Fountain.
Doig

lol @40 The Fountain was shit and so was this trailer, your taste in movies suck @ss dude. Btw i love 'foreign' movies such as 'A Prophet' and 'Gomorrha'. Lol next time dont try to sound like a hero.
luke

NO Number 14 is right!!! at 1:01 where the girl is lying on the ground there is something that looks like a bump coming out above her eye! Look at the middle right of the screen....weird!!!
Robbie

Aweful trailer, but I kinda want to see it anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/user/trailertalkshow Trailer Guy

@40 - I love indie films, i love indie SciFi, i love foreign films and i love mainstream. I simply love cinema. I think what a lot of people are getting at, without really explaining, is that this film has done itself no real favours by releasing a teaser that shows us nothing of the story. If we didn't know anything of the story, yet saw this, interest rate would probably be below 0, its low enough as it is.
Jon the Rob-ot

I thought the Karate/Kung-Fu Kid's movie should have been featured on ratemypoo.com, this one was like waking up next to Elton John