College kids film production confrontations and distinctive confidential conflicts can’t cohesively coincide with a concurrent compromising creepy cosmic calamity conspicuously calculating attacks.

Project Z is a new foreign film spoken in Norwegian with English subtitles. A college film crew is making a zombie movie in a remote location. Julie, the director, is having a power struggle with her cast members. Meanwhile, a meteorite lands nearby where social media influencers go investigate. This introduces an alien creature by showing how the YouTubers are more concerned about making videos than all else. It’s only the beginning of the social commentary about to transpire. Can they finish the film before its too late?

Written and directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, he uses various filming techniques to take a narrative we’ve seen before and give it a refreshing look by smartly blending found footage and traditional filmmaking styles. Julie and a cameraman fall in love while an actress flirts with people to change the script. Julie makes actors perform a ridiculous number of takes to the point where they intentionally act poorly to infuriate her further. It shows the conversations in between takes on how Julie wants to accomplish her vision with little to no compromise. It does do a good job of showing the other side of filmmaking that those outside the industry might be unaware of. Not all actors get along well with other actors or the director. Not everyone likes their job on set either. It’s a good self-examination of filmmaking. However, most of the characters are unlikeable because of the choices they make. Some actively make bad choices that seal their fates. For example, when someone finds an alien egg his first reaction is to stick his hand in it. Why? What good could come from this? Who would think to do this? Project Z just has a predictable plot and it commits the horror movie sin for me too by having an abrupt, anticlimactic conclusion.

The ensemble cast includes Eili Harboe, Regina Tucker, Vebjorn Enger, Jonis Josef, Iben Akerlie, Arthur Berning, Ole Christoffer Ertvaag, and Dennis Storhoi. Their characters share the same names so they essentially play disgruntled versions of themselves on the Zombie film set that has no financial backing or promising prospects. They all perform with gusto giving fun introspectives on what it’s like to be on a film set.

Overall, don’t expect a traditional horror film with Project Z. It’s an outside-the-box experimental self-aware examination of the genre and the film industry. It’s more of a parody of a horror film than anything. Similar to the Blair Witch Project, a film crew is deep in the woods as they document the filmmaking process using handheld cameras. Once the cameras are off, the conflicts escalate over various issues ranging from the petty to the monumental ones touching on themes of the difficulties faced when making movies, personal and professional relationships, and trust issues. It’s confusing climax hurts it the most. I’d recommend it but it’s not for everyone. And remember, should you put more emphasis on the extra or the terrestrial?