Straight Outta Space (SOHOME) Doesn’t Need to Re-invent the Wheel
Title: Straight Outta Space
First Non-Festival Release: February 13, 2025 (Theatrical Release)
Director: Michael Middelkoop
Writer: Michael Middelkoop, Dean Bakker, Nico van den Brink
Runtime: 92 Minutes
Starring: Shahine El-Hamus, Daniël Kolf, Sinem Kavus
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the Sohome Film Festival in 2025.
The importance of community cannot be understated. The ability to meaningfully engage with your neighbors has become a lost art as society slips into the spell of cell phones and the crushing, unceasing weight of capitalism. These relationships allow people to withstand tough times, as there is an army behind, in front of, and side-by-side them.
Amin (Shahine El-Hamus) disappoints his girlfriend Steph (Stephanie van Ear) when he loses her mother’s dog while watching him. Her frustration is amplified by his lack of ambition in life, preferring to stay stagnant in their childhood neighborhood working as a straatcoach with his best friend Mitchell (Daniël Kolf) and doing drugs with local dealer Panter (Sinem Kavus). His problems only get worse when it’s revealed that a powerful alien entity has ended its hibernation and emerged from the concrete, turning citizens of Amin’s neighborhood into mindless, blue-vomit squelching zombies.
A delightful Danish sci-fi horror comedy, Straight Outta Space stumbles in execution but not in heart.
At its core, Straight Outta Space is about coming together as a community to make your neighborhood better. Intentionally following the types of people most are content to forget, Straight Outta Space demonstrates how knowing your neighbors can help you out of many situations. Using broader sentiments against urban communities and the people that comprise them (typically less white, more queer, less wealthy, and more disabled), Straight Outta Space posits that there is more power in knowing your neighbors than flexing your achievements or money. And their problem-solving tactics prove this. Forced to work together against the impossible odds, the survivors work together, oftentimes placing themselves in danger to protect one another, to resolve the problem rather than evaporate it from existence. It’s in this microcosm of society that prioritizes relationship-building where people are seen and heard more, allowing for safer, happier, healthier communities.
[SPOILERS]
The choice to align this message with this story, however, goes even further when considering the implications of alienness. Stranded light years from home, this alien yearns for the ability to go home and lashes out when confronted with the various realities of living on earth. It isn’t intentionally harmful or even aware of its surroundings – it is laser-focused on survival. Unable to communicate with the native fauna and lacking the tools needed to return home, it uses what it has at its disposal. Its confusion is mistaken for malice and its fear for wrath. An apt, if on-the-nose metaphor, for how we treat society’s most vulnerable.
[/SPOILERS]
The quirkiness of its characters overextends itself to cover the entirety of the large ensemble cast. Everyone in Straight Outta Space is as colorful and interesting as one might expect taking a casual stroll through their own neighborhood. There’s a naturalness to their interactions, too. Playful banter, intentional silliness, and a willingness to rely on and help others characterize the type of community that Straight Outta Space envisions rather than the soulless, capitalistic utopia it’s less than savory characters dream of and their real-life counterparts are dead set on maintaining.
Solid production values help elevate the film to the heights of its premise. Painting the town in blue bile, the puppeteered citizens are appropriately blitzed out and dangerous despite not actually doling out much damage. These zombie variants end up taking on the role of the antagonist more than the creature itself, hiding some of the film’s weaker special effects work. It’s a decision that pays off in the end, as the alien-controlled neighbors fill out the space and make the film feel bigger. Cleverly hiding its stress points and elevating its comedy and feel-good energy, Straight Outta Space delivers sci-fi horror fun.
It doesn’t quite deliver on its premise in terms of quality scares, but Straight Outta Space earns enough goodwill to deserve a recommendation. Fair comparisons to Attack the Block make it harder for Straight Outta Space to make a name for itself given the similarities between the two urban alien brawl movies. Still, a decent sense of humor and a human-focused message make this Dutch alien invasion movie special. Straddling between two well-worn genres, Straight Outta Space crafts a fun psa on the importance of showing up for your neighbors, so you should show up for it when it makes its way from across the pond.
Overall Score? 6/10
