Combining Amblin style adventure with grind house exploitation theatrics, Kids vs. Aliens is the ultimate 80s man-child movie, director Jason Eisener creating a horror sci-fi that proudly wears its influences on its blood splattered, neon drenched sleeve.

Eisener – whose last film was the 2010 cult favourite Hobo with a Shotgun – has an energetic spirit for the pop culture of his youth which is felt throughout Kids vs. Aliens. Imagine a 12-year-old boy, high on Mountain Dew, creating a shared universe with all his action figures and pitting them in a battle to the death after a binge watch of Goonies and Independence Day, and you might get where Kids vs. Aliens is coming from.

Violent, crude, and slave to nostalgia, Kids vs. Aliens certainly tries too hard as a Roger Corman style alternative to Stranger Things (the f-bombs from the child actors become eye-rolling annoying after a while), yet the spirit in which Eisener creates this tribute to the movies that made him is infectious.

Set during present day Halloween, Kids vs. Aliens focuses on Gary (Dominic Mariche), Miles (Ben Tector), and Jack (Asher Grayson), a group of rough and tumble boys who find their parents-free weekend ruined when Gary’s tomboy sister, Samantha (Phoebe Rex), hands in her geek card and falls for manipulative pretty boy douchebag Billy (Calem MacDonald). When Samantha hosts a Halloween bash at her house, alien invaders with a need for human flesh crash the party. Samantha and the boys fight back with whatever tools are at their disposal.

With its techno synth score, neon drenched colour palate, and constant visual call backs to the likes of E.T. and The Monster Squad, Kids vs. Aliens works as a gore drenched, B-grade genre movie riff on the 80s kid adventure films it is clearly, unashamedly inspired by.

While it is certainly not a scary film, there is a high entertainment factor to be found in the creature feature filmmaking that Eisener employs in Kids vs Aliens. The alien monster effects and set design have a DIY charm that suits the films’ exploitation genre tone. Meanwhile, the use of barbaric, almost pagan rituals by the alien villains differentiates these sadistic ETs from many other portrayals before them.

A surprising conclusion leads to the possibility of a sequel, and if that is the case than the more the merrier. Kids vs. Aliens may not present a lot in originality, yet Eisener’s passion project is one filled with the right kind of energy and shlock-filled aesthetic to entertain genre fans who like their alien invasion movies blood-drenched and curse filled.