Alien Country
Singing for her supper in bars of the dead dog town of Blue River, dried up since Red Diamond Mining pulled out when the uranium ran out, Everly Baker believes she’s never going to make it out and get her big break, her car broken down and the father of her unborn baby, Jimmy Walker, struggling with the complexity of holding two competing thoughts in his mind, and in the hills stranger things are afoot than that remote possibility.
Brothers Gus and Bo Leacher scrounging in abandoned mine site and the surrounding desert again, what Sheriff Rogers regards as one step above grave robbing, they have found a metal briefcase which they believe may be of value to their secretive employer; hiding it before it can be confiscated by the law, circumstance brings it into the hands of Evelyn and Jimmy who not only open the case, but also a portal to another world…
Directed by Boston McConnaughey from a wild script co-written with Renny Grames, a trip to Alien Country takes full advantage of what is to hand, the backdrop of the magnificent scenery of Utah and the rustic pleasures of bars, country music, takeaway food and the demolition derby, Blue River turned upside down by the opening of the portal and the perhaps inevitable realisation that an open door works both ways.
Invaded by “demon monkey Pitbull spider things,” Everly and Jimmy (Grames and K C Clyde) have their hands full with Sheriff Rogers and Deputy Kirk (Sila Agavale and Trey Warner) at first disinclined to help, though fortunately Nana Claire (Barta Heiner) knows better than the boys what is going down in town, having been researching extra terrestrial activity in the area the last four decades.
A low-budget action-adventure comedy science fiction horror with car chases, bar fights and musical numbers, Alien Country has no ambition to present itself as sophisticated but it knows how to have fun, making the most of what it has in terms of stunning locations both desolate and beautiful and an ensemble who never hold back in the manic shenanigans, the menace of the alien parasites created through a pleasing mix of digital and practical according to the needs of the scene.
Jimmy and Everly a believable couple, trying to make the best of an unplanned situation further complicated by an alien invasion, they and the rest of their extended family are reasonable people, working together rather than bickering needlessly, accepting apologies and moving forward with makeshift plans, a refreshing change to many films where tiresome argument takes the place where character and plot might otherwise stand.
After its world premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Alien Country will be on digital download from Tuesday 22nd October
