My site always gets super crazy around Halloween, being the most horror filled month obviously. Having a look at my list of screeners to watch for review I can see sixteen, with more on the way. Alien Country is one of those (directed and co-written by Boston McConnaughey in his directorial debut), and as the title suggests, this is a sci-fi movie, a comedic one at that. With Tremors vibes and some amusing dialogue this might not be the most original movie but it was fun.
Small town demolition car driver Jimmy Walker (K.C Clyde - Zombie Hamlet) learns that Everly (Renny Grames), who he recently had a fling with, is pregnant. While trying to process that information he inadvertently ends up in possession of a strange device of alien origin which has the ability to open a gateway to another world. The pair cross over briefly, but during their time on the alien planet they accidentally allow some alien creatures to head to Earth. These alien creatures go on a rampage, killing all they come across, so Jimmy and Everly feel responsible for stopping this menace. They come into contact with an alien inhabiting the body of a dead human, the alien - Ben (Charan Prabhakar) also wants to stop this invasion, not agreeing with his people's galaxy-wide mission to take over all planets by swarming them with monsters. They eventually learn of a plot for the alien race to gain control over the gateway technology, so that they can pass back and forth between the planets at will.
Humour can often be hard to get right, but I'm pleased that while silly, a lot of the jokes here I did think were not that bad. I loved how it turns out the name 'Ben' is just as common an alien name as a human name for instance. I did actually laugh out loud on occasion, though it wasn't all great. A recurring joke about various characters constantly getting words mixed up felt a bit flat, I did like the recurring joke about a disastrous 'show and tell' event from Jimmy's childhood. There is a light heartiness about the plot that made it fun and entertaining to watch. Sure, there is a body count, with a tiny bit of blood, but the horror is slight, and the stereotypical characters were fun to follow around. The main cast were fun if unremarkable, with the exception of Ben, who was the funniest character in the movie, I liked his earnest and positive outlook. It was perhaps budget constraints that meant the intelligent aliens all inhabited bodies of humans, and that there were only two in the whole movie, the antagonist character and Ben himself.
Special effects mainly looked like passable CG, with the McGuffin gateway technology artificial but fine enough. The alien creatures were also all CG, and they had a bit of a cartoon look to them, but the film was never trying to be scary and serious so that wasn't really an issue. I did like the bright green colouration on these creatures. There was a bit of a Tremors vibe to this with the film set in a remote rural town, as well as with the alien creatures who evolve over the course of the film. Starting off like dog sized monsters, by the film's end some of them are the size of a small vehicle. At ninety five minutes long this almost started to drag, but it managed to avoid that thankfully. There was a subplot involving Jimmy's missing father that I didn't think worked too great, even if it was an integral part of the story, and few swiftly edited recurring flashback sequences, and some nice looking gateway travel moments.
The CG may not have always been the most realistic feeling, but there were a decent cast of characters and the humour worked more often than it didn't. The plot and what happens with that plot might not be the most original or surprising story out there, but I thought it worked well as some light hearted escapism that showed rural America in a good light. I didn't begrudge my time with the film at all. Alien Country released on October 22nd on digital and streaming platforms.
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