In short: Kids vs. Aliens (2022)

Relations between kid Gary (Dominic Mariche) and his older teen sister Samantha (Phoebe Rex) have been pretty great until now, with Sam indulging Gary and his two buddies Jack (Asher Grayson) and Miles (Ben Tector) by starring in their home made lucha science fiction horror monster movies, and generally being the nicest big sister a budding nerd could wish for.

Things begin to change when Sam falls big time for bad boy Billy (Calem MacDonald), his obvious sociopathy notwithstanding. Soon enough, the siblings are hardly talking and Billy has talked Sam into using their parents’ house for a big party. And because he’s that kind of asshole, we’re talking the house-trashing kind of party.

Sam and Gary will have to reconcile their differences when a bunch of nasty, body-horror-ish aliens attack the house full of teens, looking for humans to turn into UFO fuel.

Aesthetically, Hobo with a Shotgun and Treevenge director Jason Eisener’s new movie reminds me rather a lot of the films of Joe Begos. Not so much in its depth and breath but in its insistence on drenching basically every single shot in beautifully ugly neon colours and featuring characters that’ll shout and screech at each other, the camera, and nasty aliens with the kind of unpleasant shrillness most films try and avoid simply to not alienate their audience.

Depending on one’s tastes, as well as one’s mood, this emphasis on ugliness and loudness – which is even further deepened by hectic and intense camera work – can be quite a turn off; like with Begos, being shouted at in blasting neon lights for eighty minutes is not going to be to everyone’s taste. Particularly since the shouty children of Eisener’s film are even more exhausting than the shouty and cursing grown-ups of Begos. After some starting difficulties, I found myself getting into the groove of the thing eventually, particularly once the aliens began to commit various practical effects atrocities, mixing body horror, unhealthily neon-coloured bio-organic sets and a grab bag of random, well-liked around here, SF horror tropes to my personal delight.

Kids vs. Aliens could have used a bit more subtext apart from Sam’s coming-of-age (and into alien ass kicking) moment, but since it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and has a very fun, mildly gross third act, I’m pretty okay with that.