A group of young boys let loose with a video camera, a forbidden house party whilst the parents are away, the arrival of malicious extraterrestrial kidnappers… if the premise of cult genre filmmaker Jason Eisener’s latest, Kids vs. Aliens, sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because he was also the director of “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” – a segment of the found-footage anthology sequel V/H/S/2 (2013), and the basis for this feature-length expansion. “Slumber Party” was a bleak, mean-spirited affair that left very little room for hope or heart, so naturally its remake is a heartfelt, colourful coming-of-age tale with an emphasis on humour and the relationships between our empathetic leads. Just a little bit of a contrast, right? In this case, though, I found it to be a welcome one.
Kids vs. Aliens follows pre-pubescent boy Gary (played by Dominic Mariche), his best mates Jack (Asher Grayson) and Miles (Ben Tector), and his older sister Sam (Phoebe Rex). With their parents away, all Gary wants to do is shoot home-made sci-fi movies (a fun way of ensuring that the short’s found-footage angle isn’t dropped entirely) with his friends and sister, but Sam has become distant over the past few days – partially related to the arrival of local “cool kid” Billy (Calem MacDonald). The family home becomes the venue for a riotous Halloween party, which soon becomes the least of the siblings’ worries as uninvited guests show up – invaders from another world with gruesome plans for the human race!
With its neon palette and synth score, it’s pretty obvious that Kids vs. Aliens is a prime example of the “kids-on-bikes-exploitation” wave of nostalgic cinema that has dominated the genre film scene for over half a decade now; ironically, though these films are often inspired by the media of the 1980s, I have a deep suspicion that the future will view these aesthetics as being some of the ones which defined the 2010s. That isn’t remotely a dig at Kids vs. Aliens, as it largely defies fauxploitation cliché through its charming DIY costume work and late-noughts rave scene trappings. That being said, Kids vs. Aliens wouldn’t feel out-of-place in an ‘80s video store alongside titles like The Monster Squad (1987), a charming story of friendship in the face of gooey childhood-ruining odds.
I sincerely believe that, for a 13-year-old viewer, Kids vs. Aliens has the capacity to be the coolest film ever made, but restrictive age-rating brackets and the decline of video stores in the streaming age lead me to worry that this future-generation Monster Squad won’t hit those who will benefit from it the most in ways that a kid back in the ‘80s would have.
The titular kids do a good job when it comes to performances, and I found myself legitimately caring about their struggles and survival – giving the film far higher stakes than “Slumber Party” by default, which lacked a single character or performance that I found myself able to get attached to. In addition to admirable turns from Mariche, Grayson and Tector, Phoebe Rex makes for a believable cool older sister as Sam; her love of fantasy and costuming makes this a great choice to pair with last year’s Terrifier 2 (2022), which featured a similarly strong “final girl” performance. Calem MacDonald’s Billy, however, feels too cartoonishly evil from the get-go to actually work in this film’s favour – to the point that Sam’s attraction to him in spite of his overt cruelty to her brother and his friends actively works against the strength of her character. No offense to MacDonald himself, who I’m sure is lovely and who I’ve heard is great elsewhere, having appeared in 5 episodes of The Umbrella Academy (2019-).
The aliens themselves take a whole 40mins of the film’s lean 75-minute runtime to arrive, aside from a shot of a creepy hand in a quick cold open, introducing the film’s horror portion – but when they do show up, they don’t disappoint. The classic Roswell-style “grey” alien rarely gets its due in contemporary horror, let alone with a seriously scary presentation, so it came as a pleasantly terrifying surprise when the otherworldly gatecrashers show their faces and are legitimately intimidating. Though there are still some pacing issues going forward, not to mention Billy’s rather unnecessary inclusion, the film is consistently solid following this monstrous house call, traversing beyond its source material into an entertaining and engaging world of slime and terror. A memorable sequence of body horror is bound to be widely discussed by gorehounds following the Shudder premiere, whilst another shocking late-game beat lends some unexpected weight to our leads’ plight in a way that I highly respect.
All in all, Kids vs. Aliens is a pretty neat film that I do recommend – it’s a more successful picture than some of its recent ilk, for sure. I’m glad that Shudder has picked it up for distribution, meaning that more people will get to see it, but part of me worries that its true audience will miss out on seeing it entirely – 13-year-olds. I sincerely believe that, for a 13-year-old viewer, Kids vs. Aliens has the capacity to be the coolest film ever made, but restrictive age-rating brackets and the decline of video stores in the streaming age lead me to worry that this future-generation Monster Squad won’t hit those who will benefit from it the most in ways that a kid back in the ‘80s would have. Sure, it’s gory, scary and very sweary, but teens love that stuff – you watch this film and try to tell me with full honesty that you don’t think 13-year-olds are the perfect audience for this. My only hope is that parents with Shudder will also catch on and show it to their children – because for me, a 22-year-old woman who reviews genre cinema for a website, I thought Kids vs. Aliens was a neat enough romp, but if you showed it to me as a girl of 13 or 14… it would have had the serious potential to be a formative text when it comes to my love for horror.
Kids with Aliens is out now on Shudder
