Films about alien invasions and U.F.Os have been around since the 1950s. Over the course of those decades movies about flying saucers have been made in seemingly every possible way. When you think of alien invasion films you may envision a full out saucer attack like Independence Day, and Mars Attacks. Or perhaps you think of something akin to the more subtle films about aliens taking over earth such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Signs. Regardless of what comes to mind nothing can prepare you for the hilarious insanity of The Video Store.

From the opening sequence of The Video Store you know you are in for a treat. For a low budget short film, the movie has a number of big visual effects, as well as some really fun practical creature effects. The film also includes an impressively extensive cast featuring actors of nearly all ages. The comedy in the film is spot on, Rickey Bird Jr. knew how to capture the exact comedic and visual styles that a film like this needs for it to work. The energy this film exudes is that of a group of friends who came together over a case of beer and said, “Yeah this would be f**king hilarious as a movies idea.” And this is one of those instances were the filmmakers were completely right, it is absolutely hilarious.

As expected the comedic timing and rhythm of the child actors is inconstant, but the rest of the cast do a great job at fully dedicating to the bizarreness of the film, and it makes for great laughs. I would personally love to see this film get expanded into a Kung-Fury style feature Sci-Fi/Comedy. Overall The Video Store is like a bag of treats on Halloween, just good old fashioned, silly fun. I look forward to the sequel.

7 out of 10