One night in the middle of a stone circle on an isolated Welsh island that is only reachable by the mainland for a couple of hours a day when the tide is out, a couple are having sex, oblivious to the possibility that they might not be alone. That is until the woman, Cat (Jennifer Evans), thinks she hears something - or does she see something out of the corner of her eye? - and leaves her boyfriend in the darkness. But it is too late, and they are abducted by space aliens who have designs on them: first they subject the boyfriend to the dreaded anal proble, then Cat has an alien baby placed inside her...
All par for the course in this cheap and cheerful sci-fi/horror/comedy from writer and director (and editor, for that matter) Jake West, a one man film industry in the field of British, tiny budget horror. Well, one man apart from his cast and crew, but he was keen to keep the flame of British trash glowing, even if his actions were not always rewarded with acclaim. Yet he did manage to secure cinema showings for his efforts, not something that many of his peers did, proving that there was an audience for this kind of thing, although one assumes to get the most humour value out of Evil Aliens one would prefer to be in a state of inebriation.
Yet even if you aren't drunk, this film is more ambitious than a simple plot summary might make it sound, as West really went to town in heaping on the special effects both rubbery and computer graphic-y. This means not only extravagant gore, but some pretty impressive flying saucers that soar through the skies, along with things going "Boom!", always a good idea in this type of thing. As to that plot, it follows a television crew from a tiny production company who specialise in the paranormal, specifically a kind of sensationalist tabloid variation on the kind of thing that turns up on cable T.V. and about a hundred people watch.
Led by the presenter, Michelle Fox (Emily Booth), they decide Cat's story, which they have picked up on in the papers, would be a perfect ratings winner for them, and after gathering up a couple of "actors" for their reconstruction they head off to Wales and the island. Once they get there they find that Cat lives with her three sheepfarming (ooh, I wonder what jokes you could make out of that profession?) and violent Welsh-speaking brothers, but is nevertheless pregnant by agents unknown. When they interview her on camera, Cat becomes enraged that they are not taking them seriously, not as seriously as their amateur expert Gavin Gorman (Jamie Honeybourne) does, anyway.
Many made the comparisons between Evil Aliens and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, which you imagine would have been West's preferred title for this if it hadn't already been taken. Certainly there are aliens, gore, dubious gags and a nerdy hero who saves the day, and this is inescapably in the shadow of Jackson's early work, but it's inventive enough within its limitations to stand on its own two feet. The storyline tends to run out around halfway through so you're waiting through the slapstick bloodletting to reach the inevitable showdown, and the jokes are too often reliant on swearing as if it's going out of fashion, but its has a breezy quality that means the ridiculousness flies by without troubling the brain too much. On its own terms, Evil Aliens may be undemanding, but it's fair enough as it goes - and Merv and Onkey from Freak Out are in it, star spotters. Plus there's a better use of The Wurzels than any Alien vs. Predator movie could muster. Music by Richard Wells.
