This week’s retro trailer fis for the wild 1984 sci-fi musical comedy, Voyage of the Rock Aliens, which follows a gaggle of extraterrestrials who journey to Earth after selecting up unusual musical transmissions from a small American city kwons as “Speelburgh”.
Their charmingly oddball chief, Absid, turns into fascinated with human tradition, particularly rock music, and decides to research. When the aliens land, their arrival throws the city’s already chaotic teen drama into much more mayhem, notably as native aspiring rock singer Dee Dee finds herself caught between her jealous tough-guy boyfriend Frankie and the mysterious new guests.
Because the aliens try to mix in, they spark a sequence of surreal musical numbers, beach-movie-style showdowns, and over-the-top sci-fi antics.
Dee Dee’s willpower to pursue her dream of stardom clashes with Frankie’s want to remain in management, whereas Absid’s curiosity about Earth life pulls the aliens deeper into human feelings and rivalries.
The result’s a colourful, campy collision of genres, half parody, half earnest musical, that revels in its personal playful strangeness.
