Astronaut’s Wife (1999)

SCIENCE FICTION & HORROR: (1999, R.) Astronaut Spencer Armacost experiences a 2-minute blackout in outer space while an alien entity enters his body. After his return to earth, he rapes and impregnates his wife Jillian. Their previously happy marriage begins falling apart as his behavior begins to change. Ex-NASA employee Sherman Reese alerts her to the possibility that Spencer has been changed. When Reese is killed – along with Jillian’s sister – Jillian attempts to have an abortion fearing her alien children. When her attempt to kill Sherman fails, the alien enters her body. Years later we see her, now remarried, sending her evil youngsters off to school.

VIOLENCE/SCARINESS: This is intended to be a scary movie, however most of the scares are at the level of someone surprising someone else. Spencer crushes Jillian’s sister to death and we see blood coming out of her ears. Another woman electrocutes herself in a bathtub. Spencer hits Jillian several times. Jillian dives down a flight of stair in an attempt to induce a miscarriage. Jillian electrocutes Spencer. We see a cardiac needle inserted into a man’s chest; he later goes into convulsions and dies.

CRIMES: Murder (U), Rape (U), Spousal Abuse (U).

MORALS, ISSUES & VALUES: Spencer is taken over by an alien force that will stop at nothing to preserve itself and, presumably, invade the Earth. Reese, the only person in NASA to suspect the invasion, is considered psychotic and fired. He gives his life trying to save Jillian. A woman gives Jillian abortion inducing pills. The film encourages paranoia with a family. Moderate vulgarity and profanity.

SEXUALITY & GENDER ISSUES: Nuclear family. Contemporary gender roles. Jillian is a schoolteacher. When her parents died, Jillian, prone to nervous breakdowns, was hospitalized for mental problems. We see them making love under a blanket and later, in a very extended sequence, making love with their clothes on in public. The loving and carefree Spencer slowly turns into an ugly, abusive, murderous husband. Abortion and husband-as-monster are at the center of this film.

SUBSTANCES: Drinking at home, parties and bars. Once Jillian announces that she is drunk. Spencer excuses the rape of his wife by saying he had too much to drink. Some background smoking. The wealthy owner of an aerospace company smokes a cigar. Jillian drinks while pregnant.

COMMENTS: This paranoid, X-File wannabe film fails in every way imaginable – it is long, slow, boring, stupid and predictable. Even the occasional clever camerawork cannot save it. It is a very ugly film that promotes suspicion and distrust within the family unit; it also makes the act of childbearing unhealthy and fearful. Teens might be attracted to the stars, but almost any other film with either Depp (“Ed Wood” or “Edward Scissorhands”) or Theron (“Mighty Joe Young”) is better than this.

STARRING: Johnny Depp, Charlize Theron, Joe Morton, Nick Cassavetes, Clea Duvall, Donna Murphy.

ALTERNATES: “Excalibur” covers the same mythical ground and “Rosemary’s Baby” is the same idea in an excellent, truly scary film – unfortunately neither is appropriate for most children. A similar film with the same actress is “The Devil’s Advocate.”