In its opening scene, The Alien Nightmare presents itself as a pastiche of 1950s B-movie science-fiction, complete with a classic monster movie opening title font and synthesizer film score. From there it proceeds to turn that gimmick on its head with a semi-comedic twist: what if the aliens were being hunted on Earth by something the average human considered harmless? Goofy as this setup might be, the short pulls it off quite well.
The Alien Nightmare follows three aliens who land their spaceship, complete with a Close Encounters of the Third Kind rotating lights display, on Terran soil as part of what appears to be a survey mission. These lifeforms are only a few inches high, and by comparison, everything about the nearby farmhouse and lawn they visit creates the sense that they’re investigating a world of giants. Playing akin to Honey I Shrunk the Kids or Toy Story, we get to see the “normal” world from an insect-like perspective, with planted carrots turning into weird trees or a broken doll resembling some kind of macabre carcass. All this is told without dialogue, instead relying on the body movements and Minion-like grunts of the three leads to make us identify with their sense of curiosity. Then, one of the three is snatched by something hiding in the grassy forest.
Most classic B-movie films often centered around the plight of an ordinary family or town being forced to defend themselves against some dangerous other who threatens the sanctity of their homes and status quo. The Alien Nightmare inverses this by turning its house, rather than the extraterrestrial visitors, into a visual threat, with low-angle camera shots of ordinary objects like grandfather clocks, wall plates and pet doors escalating that sense of unease. Then, their missing comrade is literally dropped onto their laps by the mysterious hunter, forcing the pair to run and hide from an enemy they have no chance of defeating: a giant, kaiju-sized…. CHICKEN.
Are there survivors? Can they escape the house of horrors and get off-world? This short is well animated with a Pixar style-vibe, successfully delivering both pint-sized set pieces and moments of tension, particularly in how the aliens’ cutesiness contrasts against the chicken’s sharp talons and bulging eyeballs. It’s a setup that invokes not only classic sci-fi entries like The Incredible Shrinking Man, but also the Twilight Zone episode “The Invaders,” a similar near-wordless story of “aliens” landing on a world of giants.
At just over six minutes long, The Alien Nightmare successfully manages to blend together elements of sci-fi, surrealism, and horror, all while endearing us to its alien victims across their treacherous plight. If you never thought a fowl could incite endless nightmares, this short will quickly prove you wrong.