This is a review for the 2023 movie “Kids vs. Aliens”. This low-budget, short runtime horror is currently available on Shudder. It’s rough around the edges, but an entertaining watch – with some highlights.
What is Kids vs. Aliens about?
The movie is an adaptation of a shorter film from the same director, which was part of the 2013 horror anthology V/H/S/2. As the title may suggest, the story centres around kids fending off an alien invasion. Gary and his friends find themselves targets of some sadistic teenage bullies and try to get their own back by ruining their party. However, things go awry when unexpected, extra-terrestrial guests show up and kidnap many of the party-goers. Gary’s sister, Sam, must save her brother and his friends from the skin-stealing aliens.
Phoebe Rex’s Sam steals the show as the swashbuckling hero of the tale. An outcast among her peers, she devotes most of her time to assisting her younger brother and his friends with filming movies. However, she sets aside this passion when she gets the chance to be accepted by the popular kids at school. Sam’s journey involves learning to embrace her true self.
Kids vs. Aliens (2023) Review
This movie is very short, clocking in at around 75 minutes. It’s, therefore, not great that it expends half of it’s runtime on setting up the main cast and the bullies. Very little time in this movie is actually dedicated to the premise of “kids fighting aliens”. That is disappointing, as it’s these moments of chaos that are where the movie shines the most. Rex does a great job at carrying this film, with well-delivered one-liners amongst scenes of alien slashing. The aliens, themselves, are genuinely quite creepy and the kills that they’re involved in are extremely disturbing. This movie feels low-budget in all aspects, except for the effects – those hit the mark perfectly.
Outside of Rex’s Sam, the rest of the cast are a bit of a let-down. I don’t want to neg on some kid actors, I think they did a fine job. However, the writing for them is obnoxious. I swear a lot and I don’t really care about swearing in movies. However, these children are cursing in every second sentence – it’s trying a bit too hard to be edgy. The teenagers in this movie are supposed to be bullies, but the movie makes them completely evil. Even before aliens get involved, the main bully is actively trying to hit the kids with his car. It’s ludicrous, and sometimes that does add to the charm, but it does cross the line into “over the top”.
Overall, this movie is a very hyper-active romp. It would’ve been vastly improved by spending more time with Sam and less time with the kids and bullies, but it’s still a fun movie to watch.
Will there be a sequel to Kids vs. Aliens?
Without spoilers, this movie ends on a pretty rough cliff-hanger. Director Jason Eisener has also hinted that he’s interested in telling more stories in this universe. It, therefore, seems pretty likely that we’ll see some form of continuation… at some point.
Who should watch this movie?
This movie’s runtime makes it a very low risk watch. If you’re at all interested in the idea of kids fighting aliens, with swords, then you may as well give this a shot. It’s a fairly campy, easy to access, low-budget horror. There is a lot of swearing and disturbing imagery, you should already know if that’s your thing or not.
This was a review for the 2023 movie “Kids vs. Aliens”. Did you enjoy this movie or was it too silly for your taste? Let us know in the comments below.