Top of the Food Chain

Campbell Scott stars in this zany send-up of '50s body-snatching, alien invasion flicks. Scott plays Dr. Karel Lamonte, a pipe-smoking atomic scientist fresh from the Atomic Academy, who finds himself in the small town of Exceptional Vista -- situated somewhere between Fetus and New Imbroglio -- just before a large meteor strikes the local TV tower. Does this herald the beginning of a bizarre alien invasion? The town is littered with unusual characters: Sandy (Fiona Loewi) has an unnervingly close relationship with her brother, Guy (Tom Everett Scott); the town's sole policeman (Hardee T. Lineham) seems more interested in spanking Sandy than in solving crimes; and the mayor (Bernard Behrens) is a religious fanatic who claims that the aliens were sent from God to punish us for watching TV. When freshly gnawed-upon corpses start appearing at the edge of town, Dr. Lamonte responds like any other red-blooded atomic scientist: he bathes with a naked, inflatable likeness of himself. Top of the Food Chain was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival.~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide