Explorer from Another World (2024)

Sometimes the best film you can watch is one that perfectly fits the time you have available. I had 45 minutes. Explorer from Another World had a 45-minute runtime. It was fate.

Now, let's be clear about what this is. This is a loving, deliberate, gleefully committed homage to the sci-fi B movies of the 1950s, the kind that played in drive-ins and kept teenagers entertained while they weren't actually watching the screen. It is cheesy. It is corny. The acting is over the top in the most theatrical way imaginable, and the dubbing has that wonderful, slightly-off quality where the words and mouths feel like they exist in parallel universes. And honestly? That's the whole point.

What stops this from being a slog is the evident joy behind it. The colour schemes here are properly vibrant, saturated and bold in that retro way that makes everything look like it's been shot through a filter of pure nostalgia. The wigs and make-up are spectacular in their absurdity. And then there are the gore scenes, which land with a kind of gleeful, practical enthusiasm that genuinely surprised me. There's real craft in the chaos, even if the craft is being wielded by what feels like a very small, very enthusiastic team working with the budget you'd expect from a particularly ambitious school project.

And that's kind of where my mixed feelings live. Because there's a ceiling on this kind of thing, and Explorer from Another World bumps its head on it fairly early. Once you've clocked what it's doing, and you clock it within the first few minutes, the film doesn't have too many more tricks up its sleeve. It rides the joke well, but it's still one joke. The "so bad it's good" register is a tricky one to sustain, and films that aim for it deliberately are always walking a tightrope. Fall too far in one direction and it becomes tedious. Fall too far the other way and it tips into parody that's too knowing to be fun. This one mostly stays on the rope, which is a genuine achievement.

I think what I appreciate most is that nobody involved seems to be winking at the camera in a smug way. There's warmth in the execution rather than condescension toward the source material it's riffing on. It feels made by people who actually love those old alien invasion flicks, the ones with the wobbly sets and the earnest performances and the creatures made from whatever was lying around the workshop. If you've ever had a soft spot for that era of genre filmmaking, as I do after revisiting things like Fire in the Sky and its particular brand of committed extraterrestrial dread, you'll find something to enjoy here, even if it's a completely different corner of the same neighbourhood.

Is it impossible not to like? I said that to myself when the credits rolled and I still think it's true. It doesn't outstay its welcome, it commits fully to its bit, and the gore alone is worth a watch if you've got the stomach for it. It's not going anywhere near any awards ceremony, and it knows it, and it doesn't care. There's something almost freeing about a film that's entirely at peace with exactly what it is.

Three stars. A fun, daft, scrappy little thing. Sometimes that's exactly enough.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2024  | Watched: 2025-04-29

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon US

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