What do you get when you mash together a spaghetti western, a sci-fi fantasy, a kung-fu flick, and a stoner comedy? Writer/director/star Mike Caravella’s Astral Plane Drifter is a midnight movie fever dream that proudly embraces the weird and the existential.
Sometime before yesterday, or maybe after tomorrow, a man called The Drifter (Mike Caravella) lives both in the physical realm and the ethereal one, where he seeks disturbances in the fifth dimension. His life has been a strange kind of training to transcend into higher states of presence—most of it involving punishment and resilience. In this enlightened state, he has gained the power to open minds and reveal hidden truths beneath reality. Memories of his past surface, particularly of the time he shared with his ex-girlfriend (Irena Murphy). Together they explored meditation, psychedelics, and love, walking a spiritual path that bound them closely.
When The Drifter senses that his ex-girlfriend has been abducted, he begins a desert journey that leads toward a volcano—a portal to another realm inhabited by snake people and space vampires. His path is both physical and metaphysical, and each step brings new lessons he gleans from the Wise One. Along the way, he confronts snake people and recalls visions of a wise, towering sasquatch (Todd Jaeger) who guides him toward becoming a true MOFO. Through meditation and trial, he draws upon his powers to overcome each challenge.
Looming over all is GalaxiKhan (John J. Jordan), the sinister leader of the space vampires. GalaxiKhan seeks to drain the world of its resources, feeding his own twisted empire while keeping a harem of sexy ladies under mind control. He’s solely focused on The Drifter as his only threat. When The Drifter confronts the snake people, he convinces them to join him in a late-night party of dancing and drugs.
The Drifter (Mike Caravella) finds focus and strength in the desert.
“When The Drifter senses that his ex-girlfriend has been abducted, he begins a desert journey that leads toward a volcano—a portal to another realm.”
In the middle of the frivolity, The Drifter is reunited with his classic car… and his sidekick (Andrew Joseph Perez). The next morning, however, his car…and sidekick are stolen by the Snake People and taken to GalaxiKhan. Now the Drifter must reclaim both his sidekick and his girl, confronting the dark power at the heart of the volcano.
Astral Plane Drifter lands us squarely into the WTF genre of independent films. Writer/director/star Mike Caravella takes us on a low-budget adventure into the desert, where he explores this middle ground between the physical and the ethereal in the hope of transcending upwards once and for all. As The Drifter, Caravella paints a hero who fights with “quiet strength and spiritual poise.”
Caravella blends a myriad of genres in his film—Spaghetti Western, sci-fi, stoner comedy, kung-fu, and grindhouse horror. It’s B-movie magic all the way. His characters appear to come from 1960s horror, and as The Drifter, Caravella would probably make Cheech & Chong proud. The world he exists in is full of chaos, and all he wants to do is navigate peacefully through the chaos and rescue his girl, his car, and, oh, his sidekick. At the same time, Astral Plane Drifter might be a little too heady for some. If you’re one who wants to languish away in the physical realm, maybe Caravella will convince you otherwise.
In the end, Astral Plane Drifter is less about the battle with space vampires and more about one man’s trippy journey toward enlightenment. Embrace the absurd, laugh at the madness, and maybe even glimpse the higher realms yourself.
For more information, visit the Astral Plane Drifter official website.
"…Embrace the absurd, laugh at the madness, and maybe even glimpse the higher realms yourself."
