Kids vs. Aliens

This was a movie that I tried to fit into my schedule when it came to the Gateway Film Center, but I couldn't make it work. It went on a list of ones to potentially see this year. Duncan from the Podcast Under the Stairs enjoyed this so that helped me make sure to not miss it as well. Other than that, the title made me think about the segment from V/H/S/2 of Slumber Party Alien Abduction. I'll come back to this as well.

Synopsis: an all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing two warring siblings to band together to survive the night.

We start this on a fishing boat. This is a small crew and they're attacked by aliens. It then shifts over to the family that we're following for this. Gary (Dominic Mariche) is making a movie along with his friends Jack (Asher Grayson) and Miles (Ben Tector). Gary's older sister is tasked with watching her younger brother, but also takes part in what they're doing. Her name is Samantha (Phoebe Rex).

They have an old barn where a wrestling ring amongst other things are kept. This group is filming there when another group shows up. They're older and bullies. Billy (Calem MacDonald) is their leader. He is joined by Trish (Emma Vickers) and Dallas (Isaiah Fortune). Billy seems interested in Samantha, which throws her off. It also upsets her brother and his friends.

What we learn as well is that Gary and Samantha's parents are away for work. Gary breaks his arm, which upsets them and they blame their daughter for not being there. What they don't realize is that she is taking on their job. Billy complicates this more when he hits on Samantha. He goes as far to convince her to throw a party.

The siblings are at odds. The party also gets out of control. It pales in comparison though when the aliens from the beginning attack. Gary, Billy and others are taken back to the spacecraft. Samantha is forced to step up to save them before it is too late.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to our characters. Where I want to start is that ahead of seeing this, I thought this sounded like that segment I brought up earlier from V/H/S/2. When the credits in the beginning started, I noticed names that were associated with that anthology. Settling in to write this, I did see that the director/co-writers did Slumber Party Alien Abduction. It makes sense.

Now with that set up, what I like is that they did a good job at taking that short and then expanding on it. I should say that the first-time watching V/H/S/2, I didn't care for it. It was one that I rated near the bottom. With a second viewing, my stance changed and I appreciated it more. What I remembered was that the older sibling didn't care for the younger one which made issues. I like that this captures that, but it develops it more. Samantha has fun with her brother and his friends. It isn't until she gets that taste of being with the popular crew that she changes. If I do have an issue here, the low running time doesn't develop this enough. It's not a major issue though as it feels real enough.

Having brought this up, let me talk about this group of kids. What I like is that it feels like my group of friends when I was closer to that age. We were into video games and things that would be considered 'weird'. I will say I've always been a chameleon where I could hang out with different groups with no issues. These kids have fun and embrace being who they are. I forgive Samantha as she is in that awkward age. You want to fit in and be popular. I'll credit Mariche, Rex, Grayson and Tector.

Moving then to the other group. Billy and Trish are bullies. I think they go a bit into the 'evil villain' which can be a bit much for high school kids. Dallas just seems to go along with them. What I will say though, I love what Billy does when the aliens attack. He feels like a scumbag that would use those around him to survive. I did appreciate that. I'd say that MacDonald, Vickers and Fortune were all solid as well.

Then the only other group would be the aliens. I'll shift this into the effects here. The look of them is fine. It fits the idea that we would have for them. What I like is that we don't linger on them so we can't critique it too hard. We get images of it as things get manic when the attacks happen. That is done strategically to hide them as well as raise tension. There are good effects that we get as we reach the climax. One involves melting, another when the characters fight back. I did enjoy that as they looked practical. I'd say that the use of lights for the aliens and the cinematography were also good. The soundtrack adds to it with driving tension with the lights as well.

I'm not sure that is much more that I need to say about this one. In conclusion, this is a fun movie. It is fast paced, doesn't take too long to get into it and ends in a flurry. I like the characters that we have on both sides. It is interesting that they're against each other until a more dangerous group shows up. The acting is good. No issues there. I think that this is also well-made. This is one that I would recommend giving a viewing. It isn't great, but it is a fun watch.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

Jason Eisener blends his love for pro-wrestling and grindhouse horror into an extended version of the V/H/S 2 segment that doesn't quite hit the mark. While the man's passion for these pop-culture phenomenons is largely evident, I think the plot and characterizations are super thin (especially that of Samantha and Billy) and the practical effects are a tad too silly, often bordering on the comical. Maybe, that was the intention after all? Like, an anti-Spielbergian approach to showcasing a Gen Z & Gen Alpha ensemble, i.e. Foul-mouthed kids versus horny, anarchist teenagers.

However, the film lacks conviction in delivering the goods. I'll give you an instance as to why. When the film is showing the "home movies" that the kid characters are making, it's alright to use shaky cam and extreme close-up shots as that would befit the setup. But then, why shoot straightforward action set-pieces too in shaky cam? Some of it is borderline nauseating. The main antagonist (no, not the aliens) is out-of-this-world despicable - no effort has gone into the writing or the performance. I like Eisener's work on Dark Side of the Ring, but as a feature filmmaker, I'm yet to see something truly remarkable coming from him.

The 2022 sci-fi horror movie "Kids vs Aliens" from writers John Davies and Jason Eisener turned out to be quite an enjoyable surprise. I had initially thought it was a family movie, given the movie's title. And as I hadn't heard about the movie prior to watching it, then I didn't know what I was in for.

Writers John Davies and Jason Eisener put together a very entertaining and enjoyable script and storyline for "Kids vs Aliens". And I have to say that I was genuinely entertained from the very beginning of the movie and right up to the end. So thumbs up to the writers on that accomplishment.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they had put together a good cast for the movie. The young actors and actresses carried the movie quite well with their performances.

The character gallery in the movie was fairly okay, and the Billy character, as played by Calem MacDonald, was really a dislikable character, which was a credit to the writing skills of John Davies and Jason Eisener.

Visually then "Kids vs Aliens" is also quite good. The movie starts out fairly vaguely with out of focus glimpses of the aliens, then slowly and gradually revealing more and more of the extraterrestrial entities. It was a nice way of doing it and it worked, so director Jason Eisener managed to do quite well. The special effects in "Kids vs Aliens" were good, and the aliens were rather impressive, well aside from their prolonged fingers, which looked very impractical.

Don't get discouraged by the movie's title, because "Kids vs Aliens" is a rather enjoyable and entertaining movie. It is definitely a movie that I will warmly recommend.

My rating of "Kids vs Aliens" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Firstly I would like to start this review by saying under normal circumstances this would be the kind of B movie I would thoroughly enjoy and I had been looking forward to seeing this as I was a fan of the directors work. Sadly it turns out to be a pretty poor effort all round. The acting is good from all the young cast but the story is non existent and the fx and production values are bargain basement. The aliens look terrible and the faces just look like a Halloween mask with no moveable features. Gore wise it's very tame and apart from the odd moment it doesn't deliver much of anything. I like to support small indi horror but even at 75 mins it's a chore to get through.

Horror has seen a resurgence in the last several years/decade. But so has the relentless onslaught of homages to the campy, garbage 80's horror/sci-fi films. Some do it very well, some are awful, and this film is somewhere in-between. I found it fun but at the same time too drawn out and overall, hard to watch in the sense of it being bad. Being directed by the guy who made Hobo with a Shotgun, expect it to be intentionally bad, and then see that they may have tried a bit too hard to make it schlocky.

Que to clichés, foul mouth pre-teens and teens, huge house party, evil of some sort ruin it, kids band together to defeat said malevolence. The acting was good but everything else either was just below average or flat our bad. What kind of script was this? Did a foul mouthed 12 year old like the ones in the film write this. They couldn't have added more foul language if they tried. Sure we swore as kids, but this was trying to hard.

The story was horrifying, again trying way to hard to be those Prom Night, Slumber Party Massacre, The Prowler, Nightmare on Elm Street 2 type films. The social hierarchy of "cool kids and dorks" is so over done, to the point where a character literally says dorks deserve to be taken by the aliens and murdering a child because "you ruined my party". Its just too much, again, "trying too hard" would be the motto of this film.