The cold open for Kids Vs. Aliens is great. A small group of Nova Scotia fishermen is picked off one by one from their ship by a clan of creatures. This opening really captures the suspenseful and mysterious feel of the segment “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” from the film VHS2 that inspired the film. This feature, while entertaining, is a different animal altogether. Hobo with a Shotgun director Jason Eisener returns to his short to expand on the idea of aliens descending upon a clan of kids with a decidedly goofier tone. Think Independence Day meets The Goonies and you have an idea of what to expect.

Scrappy tweener and aspiring filmmaker Gary (Dominic Mariche), his older sister Samantha (Phoebe Rex), and pals Jack (Asher Grayson) and Miles (Ben Tector) are shooting another home movie when bad boy Billy (Calem MacDonald) and his crew of cool kids roll in. Samantha is obviously smitten. When Mom (Jessica Marie Brown) and Dad (Jonathan Torrens) are called out of town on business Samantha gives in to peer pressure and agreed to hold a house rager for Halloween. The stage is set. We have the teens against the tweens, the sister against the brother, and aliens ready to pounce.

It’s impossible not to compare the short that inspired it to the feature we have here because the two are so different. Given a scant few minutes, Jason Eisener developed a segment for VHS2 that was scrappy, mysterious, and unnerving. Here he revisits his idea of kids, on their own during an alien abduction and serves up a very different movie. Eisener leans into his comfort zone of hyper saturation and whimsy to give us a kids’ movie for adults.

Thank goodness the kids are great in their parts. Tector‘s every-kid plays well with Grayson‘s plucky Jack and Mariche‘s goofball Gary. Rex does a fine job as the cool older sister that is finding herself in the savage teen scene of Nova Scotia. Even goons Trish (Emma Vickers) and Dallas (Isaiah Fortune) do a great job as Billy’s besties. Eisener props the young talent up with a silly plot and bonkers scenarios to allow them to let loose and have fun.

There are a few missed opportunities, yet nothing that kills the silly fun. We are asked to believe that a pair of well-to-do parents would leave their two kids alone on a holiday weekend. The insanity of this idea could have been pushed so much further. The third act of the movie sags with a predictable rescue and escape that offers few surprises.

Despite the few misgivings, Kids Vs. Aliens is a fun little horror film. This is a candy-colored adolescent fever dream that races through themes of adolescence, loyalty, family, and creativity.

7 Out of 10