A London DJ returns to his home in Wales to host a New Year’s Eve party. When a wave of time traveling aliens descend on the party, he and his friends must protect their rural valley from the invaders.

New Year’s Eve is a time to reflect on the days that have passed, see what we did wrong, analyze how to become better persons, and set goals for the following 365 days. For the characters in Alien Party Crashers (2019), a common goal is set: to survive the night when aliens, or vampire fishermen as described by Steve (Craig Russell), decided to take over the world.

Before mentioning the ups and downs of the film, I must clarify that it has a simple and cheap production; the producers worked with what they had available. However, that does not affect the final result.

Considering it falls within the sci-fi genre, the movie should be inclined to have beautifully designed spacecraft floating in the sky, but that is not the case; money was spent on great editing. As for the aliens’ costumes, they could have done enough things to create a figure that could cause fear and laughter at the same time. However, they were characterized with yellow raincoats, long and sharp claws, and pale skin. If this makes the viewer think of the creatures introduced by M. Night Shyamalan in one of his films, then the viewer is right. The only difference is that the aliens resemble a human appearance, and that is a very important factor to the climax of the film when the motives are revealed.

The plot seems complicated at the beginning. A series of events occurring at different times related to the alien attacks and falling corpses from the sky sets the dark and comedic mood of the film. Thirty minutes later, it gets tricky as the events mentioned during the first five minutes are relevant to the following 25 minutes. But everything is explained, again, towards the end of the runtime.

The dialogue has a tone of what black comedy is in the UK. What works perfectly for this is the effort that the actors have put in to transmit irony and sarcasm in the face of death by the hands of the aliens. The fun, and sometimes weird, part is that the characters demonstrate shock by their current situation, but they maintain their profiles as if the experience couldn’t change them for life.

At the end, the picture is enjoyable. The directing and editing are good. The casting choices are excellent. The soundtrack, when heard, is forgettable but it doesn’t matter when you have more things to rely on.

Alien Party Crashers is an ambitious and entertainingly clever independent film that may not be as fun and gory as a well-known comedy zombie movie, but it has its merits to stand on its own.

Alien Party Crashers
RATING: UR
Canaries | Trailer | Robert Pugh | Hannah Daniel | Kai Owen | Peter Stray
Runtime: 1hr. 24Mins.
Directed By:
Written By:

About the Author

Brandon Henry was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of the border of San Diego. His birthplace is the main reason nothing really scares him (kidding… it’s a very safe place). His love for horror films came when his parents accidentally took him to watch Scream, at the age of 6, thinking that it was a safe-choice because it starred “that girl from Friends”. At 12, he experienced the first of many paranormal events in his life. While he waits to be possessed by the spirit of a satanic mechanic, he works as a Safety Engineer and enjoys going to the theater, watching movies and falling asleep while reading a book. Follow him on Instagram @brndnhnry and on Twitter @brandon_henry.