It works because the lead child stars are great, particularly the lone female, Elle Fanning as Alice, who can certainly run circles around elder sister Dakota when it comes to acting. She’s so terrific in the train station where she enacts a scene trying to stop her husband from going to Michigan. She held all the boys in rapt attention with her truly spellbinding kind of quiet emoting. Also good are Joel Courtney as the hero, Joe Lamb, son of the town’s deputy sheriff, and Riley Griffiths as Charles, Joe’s best friend who’s the director of the zombie film they’re doing. Both Joe and Charles turn out to be enamoured with Alice. Joe and Alice are in a Romeo-and-Juliet kind of story since Alice’s dad caused the death of Joe’s mom in an accident.
At the outset, let’s commend the production design as it’s really great, especially the look of the 70s small town, the alien’s subterranean cavern and the scarily designed creature itself. As a film on first romance, the interaction between Joe and Alice, the most fully realized characters, is also compellingly delineated. The film stars kiddie stars (more like tweeners) but it’s not really for kids. To begin with, it has many boring parts and is unnecessarily overlong at more than 2 hours. There are many characters (like the gas station attendant with a walkman and the stoned photo shop clerk who are given undue importance) and scenes that can be edited out to quicken the pacing (too many to enumerate.) It takes a long time for the main story to develop and for the alien to make an appearance. It’s only toward the ending that we finally get to see it in full and in close up.
The story says the government has been keeping the alien since 1958, so why did it take so long before the alien finally escapes when it’s so powerful? Towards the ending, it was able to very quickly construct its spaceship using all sorts of metals. So why didn’t it build its vehicle right away so it can go home immediately to wherever it came from? There are many other questionable details in the film. The science teacher whose pickup truck causes the train wreck collides with the oncoming train directly, and yet, he miraculously survives. There’s a massive explosion with debris flying all around, but not one of the kids gets hit and even more startling, Alice’s car that they used in going to the train station (which was completely demolished) doesn’t even have a scratch on it.
There’s also some confusion about the alien. At first, it’s portrayed as a truly menacing entity who kills people and dogs, but later on, it’s made to appear sympathetic and the real villains here turn out to be the military who’s covering up its presence. If they wanted the audience to empathize with the alien more, maybe it should’ve been given its own back story. Don’t leave when the end credits are shown because it is here that the sombie movie the kids are making is shown in full. It’s hilarious so be sure not to miss it.