Friday, 29 August 2025

VOD: Alien Country (dir: Boston McConnaughey, 2024)

"Well, that's different."
 

In this lightweight sci-fi action-comedy, set in remote small-town redneck America, home of motorbikes, dive-bar brawls and demolition derbies, hapless loser/dreamer Jimmy and his accidentally-pregnant long-suffering girlfriend Everly inadvertently open a portal that allows some malevolent alien creatures to get through and wreak havoc in their home town of Blue River. With a big, brash noisy music score and the barely-glimpsed creatures/action mostly happening off-screen, this low-budget affair has ambition and presents itself with lively energy , snappy banter and one-liners, a nicely-played fractious relationship between the two leads in particular, limited FX work that is well-realised and there is some dramatic desert-location shooting that looks good on-screen.  Uncomplicated, competently-made and with a whiff of the tone of Tremors, some aspects feel a little underdeveloped but overall Alien Country is straightforward and effectively entertaining.

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