Evil Aliens

Evil Aliens is an extremely broad horror comedy that, while not as ineffective as some other examples of the genre, isn’t nearly as much fun as director Jake West clearly believes it to be. The story revolves around a schlocky television crew who heads to the countryside to investigate a possible UFO sighting. It’s not long before the discover that aliens have indeed landed, and they’re far from friendly. West – who also wrote the film’s screenplay – imbues Evil Aliens with an extraordinarily hyperactive sense of style, a choice that admittedly suits the material but becomes awfully tiresome almost immediately. It certainly doesn’t help that the majority of the story transpires at night, lending the film a dreary, unpleasant visual quality. And as far as movies of this sort go, Evil Aliens is actually quite slow-moving; it takes a good half hour before anything of note happens, although the film does open with an impressively gory sequence. In that regard, at least, the movie succeeds (particularly towards the end) – as West throws in a number of over-the-top instances of violence (a scene involving fleeing aliens and a harvester is clearly a standout). To be fair, Evil Aliens is going for a very specific audience, and viewers who ordinarily enjoy this sort of thing will probably not be disappointed. And hey, where else are you going to see an alien slip on a banana peel?

*1/2 out of ****