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Zach Clark’s sci-fi film The Becomers tells a strange yet poignant tale of two aliens seeking refuge on our planet. In their dying world, they’re forced to evacuate, traveling through space sadly separated. Each lands on Earth, where they assume human forms to hide in plain sight among us. But finding each other won’t be easy as they navigate an unfamiliar world and its people.

Right away, this oddball cinematic journey stands apart from typical alien invasion stories. We don’t experience the fear of not knowing who to trust as impostors possibly surround us. Instead, we follow the aliens themselves as confused outsiders, grasping to understand humanity while yearning to reunite. Learning each new skill like language and customs proves both entertaining and unsettling as inaccuracies emerge.

Along the way, the film explores profound themes of identity, love against all odds, and what it means to truly fit in.

While big studio sci-fi films seemingly struggle while trying to manage too many expectations, obligations and money, the indie sector of the same genre is definitely on the rise. The Becomers, the latest outing from Zach Clark, the director known for Modern Love Is Automatic (2009), White Reindeer (2013) and Little Sister (2016), which premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival, is another example of a modest budget turned into creative fun. An alien from a distant dying planet lands in the middle of Illinois and body snatches their way through it in search of their lover who reached the Earth in a different pod. The first body, the one of an unlucky hunter, doesn’t last long before our protagonist bumps into a woman (Isabel Alamin)...

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High-concept movie formula makers will have a field day with Zach Clark’s The Becomers. Is its tender, yet often violent, saga of star-crossed – and serial human body inhabiting – lovers a hybrid of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Todd Solondz’ Palindromes (whose lead character is played by eight different actors) or an Invasion of the Body Snatchers updated for an N95-masked America? Or … something else? Clark’s first film since his widely beloved Little Sister (2016) wasn’t one he had in the pipeline. The New York-based writer-director-editor had put a heroic effort into launching a project on […]

The post Make a $100,000 Genre Movie in 12 Days in Chicago: Writer/Director Zach Clark on The Becomers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

High-concept movie formula makers will have a field day with Zach Clark’s The Becomers. Is its tender, yet often violent, saga of star-crossed – and serial human body inhabiting – lovers a hybrid of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Todd Solondz’ Palindromes (whose lead character is played by eight different actors) or an Invasion of the Body Snatchers updated for an N95-masked America? Or … something else? Clark’s first film since his widely beloved Little Sister (2016) wasn’t one he had in the pipeline. The New York-based writer-director-editor had put a heroic effort into launching a project on […]

The post Make a $100,000 Genre Movie in 12 Days in Chicago: Writer/Director Zach Clark on The Becomers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ask every independent filmmaker you know to tell you how they got their latest project off the ground, and you’ll never hear the same story twice. The task of finding funding for passion projects often feels so sisyphean that there’s no “right” way to do it. It comes down to timing, hustle, and a decent amount of luck. Zach Clark was already a celebrated indie filmmaker in his own right for films like “White Reindeer” and “Little Sister.” But he’ll be the first to tell you that his latest work, the sci-fi romance “The Becomers” was the result of some pandemic-era serendipity.

“Let me take you back to a time in February 2021,” Clark said during a recent conversation with IndieWire. “I was sitting in my apartment doing truly nothing, and Joe Swanberg called me and asked if I had any ideas for $100,000 genre movies that we could shoot in 12 days in Chicago.

Interesting core concept struggles to shine through absurd and heavy-handed grotesqueries. Indie film with mismatched humor and shocking scenes lacks consistency in execution. Experiment gone wrong; film fails to polish the concept and crosses too many lines.

The Becomers (2024) has an interesting premise that becomes buried underneath awkward performances and moments that attempt to shock us into thinking it's artsy. While there does seem to be a core message examining the human condition from the perspective of alien invaders, and their developing appreciation and understanding of humans, the message is voided thanks to grotesque and absurd imagery. Despite a valiant effort and passion from writer/director/editor Zach Clark, the movie feels inconsistent and disappointing.

The Becomers (2024) Director Zach ClarkRelease Date August 23, 2024Writers Zach ClarkCast Victoria Misu, Anne Ruttencutter, Keith Kelly, Isabel Alamin, Frank V. Ross, Molly Plunk, Mike Lopez, Russell MaelRuntime 86 MinutesGenres Sci-Fi, Romance, Comedy

When a pair of powerful aliens land on Earth,...

Since Jack Finney’s “The Body Snatchers” was first published 70 years ago, screen adaptations — official and unofficial alike — have taken place in small-town USA, Me Decade San Francisco, a military base, high school and so forth. All had a gist in common: humanity being infiltrated and co-opted by a shape-shifting invasive force from outer space. Loosely playing on that theme, Zach Clark’s “The Becomers” adds a new wrinkle, in that this time the body-hopping entities don’t necessarily intend conquest. They just want to co-exist, peacefully. But it turns out they may have chosen the wrong planet and/or species, because they discover today’s mankind is perhaps too messed up to be worth the trouble.

That’s a good premise for the kind of sly, deadpan absurdism Clark aims for here. But despite its fantastical hook, this episodic narrative lands short of the curiously winsome black comedy quirkiness...

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes…a planetary apocalypse forcing you and your alien soulmate to invade the Earth and possess bodies you don’t understand? Sure, why not.

In Zach Clark’s wonderfully weird “The Becomers,” alien terror collides with a cascading case of mistaken identity. When two genderless extraterrestrials crash-land in different parts of Illinois, they must covertly assimilate through a revolving door of skin-suits before finding each other’s new forms. Clark’s latest is more candy-tart than saccharine-sweet — but for those unfamiliar with his out-there style, this electric portrait of doomsday-defying love serves as a ready-made soft spot for the indie filmmaker.

“The Becomers” writer/director/editor is already known for painting in seriocomic shades thanks to movies like “Little Sister” and “White Reindeer.” He’s exploring themes of complex grief again here, but this time it’s through the lens of a loss...

A scene from The Becomers. Courtesy of Dark Star Pictures

Start with the classic, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Flip the perspective to that of the aliens who take over human bodies. Then tell the story from the ETs’ point of view in a darkly comedic package. Now you know what you’ll be getting in The Becomers.

The film is narrated in a dreamy, romantic tone by a male voice (Russell Mael), rhapsodizing about its great love for its partner who has also come to Earth, both landing somewhere in the Metro Chicago area. We don’t know what they look like, since they must take over a human’s body, killing the original occupant in the process. The result is a new mind in an old body, with the only visible difference being bright colorful lights emanating from their eyes. Their goal is to blend into that person’s life without being noticed,...

Have you ever seen something really horrific or even just bizarre on our planet and thought, 'ugh, what would an alien think if they were to visit Earth right now?'" That's the core question of The Becomers, an upcoming extraterrestrial body-snatch film from Little Sister and White Reindeer director,...

The Becomers: "Forced to flee their dying planet, two body-snatching alien lovers arrive separately on Earth. Determined to find each other, the aliens jump from body to body, but they quickly learn that it's not easy to inhabit their new, fleshy hosts, and that life in modern-day America is more complicated than they could have ever imagined."

"Writer/director Zach Clark’s acclaimed sci-fi genre-bender The Becomers kicks off its U.S. theatrical release on Friday, August, 23rd and arrives on VOD in North America on Tuesday, September 24th. The film will open in New York on August 23rd at Cinema Village, in Los Angeles on August 30th at Lumiere Music Hall, and in Chicago on September 13th at Music Box Theatre, with more cities listed below.

The latest film from the celebrated American indie filmmaker, the visually striking and outrageously plotted film reverberates with the pulse of politics...

The trailer for the 2023 film, The Becomers is here, putting a more gruesome and absurd take to the body-snatching genre. The film made its debut during the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival and stars Russell Mael, Molly Plunk, Isabel Alamin, Keith Kelly, and Mike Lopez. The film will have a limited theatrical release across America before it makes its way to VOD for all to see.

Love is always hard to find, but as two body-snatching aliens find out in “The Becomers,” it may be even more difficult to keep in modern-day America. The latest film from “Little Sister” director Zach Clark explores the zeitgeist of the past five years in a twisty tale of two alien love-birds freshly arrived on Earth who try to make things work in their new host bodies.

Continue reading ‘The Becomers’ Trailer: Zach Clark’s Tale Of Body-Snatching Alien Lovers Hits NYC & LA Theaters Later This Month, VOD In September at The Playlist.

As the summer movie season comes to a close, August brings a shockingly stacked slate of offerings, topped by a film that is sure to age like a fine classic in years to come. Elsewhere we have accomplished debuts, action spectacles, and a thriller from the man who has recently returned to perfecting the formula.

15. Blink Twice (Zoë Kravitz; Aug. 23)

While its new title doesn’t quite have the hook of its original, Pussy Island, we’re curious what’s in store for the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz. Featuring some cast––including Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, and Geena Davis––the story follows a cocktail waitress who becomes infatuated with a tech mogul and travels with him to his private island, where things begin going wrong. Featuring cinematography by Adam Newport-Berra (The Last Black Man in San...

At Filmmaker we’ve long been a fan of Zach Clark, director of such witty and genre (and genre-adjacent) work as Little Sister, Vacation! and White Reindeer. He always brings real style and subversive smarts to his pictures, which often apply ingenious tonal twists to familiar situations and set-ups. For his latest, The Becomers, Clark fuses an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type tale with a classic rom-com set up. Reviewing the film out of Fantasia, Erik Luers wrote: In depicting two shape-shifting entities who arrive separately on Earth searching for their misplaced mate, Clark’s film provides his Midwest cast the opportunity […]

The post Trailer Watch: Zach Clark’s The Becomers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

At Filmmaker we’ve long been a fan of Zach Clark, director of such witty and genre (and genre-adjacent) work as Little Sister, Vacation! and White Reindeer. He always brings real style and subversive smarts to his pictures, which often apply ingenious tonal twists to familiar situations and set-ups. For his latest, The Becomers, Clark fuses an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type tale with a classic rom-com set up. Reviewing the film out of Fantasia, Erik Luers wrote: In depicting two shape-shifting entities who arrive separately on Earth searching for their misplaced mate, Clark’s film provides his Midwest cast the opportunity […]

The post Trailer Watch: Zach Clark’s The Becomers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

It feels like the world at large is finally starting to come to terms with the full weight of what happened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Zach Clark's The Becomers is very much a pandemic movie. While it never once mentions that coronavirus by name, the masked characters and various other protocols depicted on-screen leave little doubt as to when exactly the movie takes place.

The Becomers Is a Film About 2020

During a time when most indie film studios were shying away from showing the real craziness that was happening in the world, Zach Clark decided he was going to take on this shared experience head-on.

"Why?" He asks rhetorically when addressing the fact that studios didn't want anyone on camera to be in a mask, even though everyone behind the camera was wearing one. "Why can't we make stuff that reflects this giant crazy thing that we all went through?...

Alien invasion movies can get pretty dark. One needn't look further than the likes of A Quiet Place, or War of the Worlds, or Signs, or any hundreds of other films that play on humankind's fear of the other and otherworldly beings. In these films, humans are the unmistakable underdogs, and great efforts are made to have the audience root for our fellow Homo sapiens to overcome vastly technologically superior enemies and emerge triumphant, our home world intact. But it's never without sacrifice.

Not too many films show you the invasion from the alien's perspective though, and fewer still are able to give moviegoers a chance to really empathize with extraterrestrial invaders in an authentically hopeful way. Writer and director Zach Clark's latest film, The Becomers, accomplishes just that.

The Becomers Has Both a Gruesome Streak and a Soft Side

The film starts off rather cruel, almost acting like...

Last week, a bunch of high-ranking military officials went before the US Congress and admitted that the government has been aware of the existence of aliens and that remains of extraterrestrials had been recovered from UFO crash sites. But the public at large was relatively unphased by this news because we're already so wrapped up in our own problems. How much more shocking can an alien invasion be to say, a global pandemic or a climate crisis?

Seeing The Becomers at the Fantasia Film Festival reflected this mood. The sci-fi rom-com indie satire drops a pair of aliens into a distracted and troubled world much like our own. It was written and directed by Zach Clark (Little Sister) in the early days of Covid-19, joining the leagues of post-pandemic flicks like Sick and Corona Zombies.

“…the film has an unworldly feeling to it…”

In The Becomers, an alien has landed on earth,...

Writer/Director Zach Clark (Little Sister) takes familiar science fiction concepts, namely body-hopping aliens attempting to assimilate themselves on Earth, to awkward results and gets even weirder with it. The Becomers defies easy categorization as it blends absurdist humor with gross-out sci-fi and quirky rom-com conventions. It’s an ambitious voyage aimed to challenge perceptions and occasionally the gag reflex as it examines the power of love amidst a turbulent world.

The Becomers begins as horror, with an alien landing on Earth and seeking a human host to emulate. The alien finds one but then comes upon a woman giving birth in her car, asking for help. The title card then abruptly appears over a revolting mingling of blood and viscous yellow body fluid swirling on the ground. It’s enough to impress upon viewers that this alien species’ body-hopping way of fitting in spells bad news for the human hosts.

As the narrator (Sparks’ Russell Mael) tells his story of star-crossed love many moons away, we watch as violence is wrought upon random, unsuspecting souls. Is the brightly lit, eye-holed entity taking over these bodies the same character as the disembodied voice we hear? Maybe. Hopefully.

Why? Because that would mean it isn’t acting out of aggression. It would merely be an alien creature come to Earth, jumping from host to host until it can reunite with its lover. When one body no longer proves sufficient, it must discard and seek another. When it settles on one that works, it lays low in hiding––using the cash from the pockets of its victims to find its way onto the Internet so it can buy contact lenses that hide its glow without the need of sunglasses. Unfortunately, however, Earth (and especially America) is hardly the “safest” place to hide.

Writer-director...