Straight Outta Space

Bluesky

A spirited but incoherent romp involving alien invaders, zombie-analogues and real estate development, Michael Middelkoop’s Straight Outta Space, also known as Straatcoaches Vs. Aliens, centres on two street coaches – youth workers, in essence – who are supposed to be out and about in their neighbourhood, ready to intervene if trouble strikes, but who are more inclined to sit around playing video games until the degree of trouble is so great that they really have no choice.

Pressuring Amin (Shahine El-Hamus) to make something more of his life is girlfriend Steph (Stephanie van Eer), who wants to move to a better neighbourhood and move forward with the sort of life plan that middle class women often value. She has a decent job with a construction company but she’s sick of supporting him and is on the verge of leaving for good. She’s particularly down on his friendship with colleague Mitchell (Daniël Kolf), whom she sees, not unreasonably, as a bad influence. Still, she trusts him to look after her little dog, Georgie. This is not a good idea. Try not to get too attached to the dog.

The audience is never in the dark about the alien threat in the neighbourhood because we have seen it in a prologue – seen a site supervisor working besides a tar pit grabbed by a tentacle and dragged down into the sticky depths. Now that area has been concreted over, the only survivor of the incident a homeless alcoholic who has no hope of successfully warning anyone, but Steph’s boss wants to develop it – part of an ongoing programme of gentrification which is pricing out the area’s ordinary residents as well as destroying the public spaces they use for recreation.

One wonders if the film was initially supposed to focus on the big monster, which is the fun one, before its creators were apprised of the cost of doing that. Instead we get a rather weak idea about it infecting people, causing them to vomit purple goo and get so peckish that they eat everything sight, going on to attack each other. The stakes are raised for our heroes when the neighbourhood is sealed off, with no sign of help on the way. They discuss sitting it out. Surely someone will do something. But for how long? “Until a white girl goes missing?” asks one of their friends.

The comedy is a bit hit and miss. A running joke about a police officer who thinks he can get high by inhaling helium is cute at first but soon runs out of steam. Other material has the feeling of local humour that’s failing to translate. Nevertheless, it has its moments, and for the most part it’s warm-hearted and likeable enough to make up for the odd mis-step, with a similar vibe to Attack The Block. It didn’t really have the substance to work at Fantasia, where it screened in summer 2025, but on digital it should find its natural home.

Source