In 2009 director Neill Blomkamp managed to impress the world with his District 9. With an estimated budget of “only” 30 million he managed to make a science fiction film with lots of special effects, which got Hollywood interested. The next two movies he made, Elysium and Chappie (both of which I enjoyed) generally weren’t received as positvely. A while ago Blomkamp announced he would be starting Oats Studios, with which he’ll make short experimental films. The first one is the alien invasion short Rakka, which is available through YouTube.
Watching this you notice the experimental nature. This isn’t a complete story, but it shows a couple of moments set in a world which has been taken over by an alien species which experiments on humans and is slowly trying to get rid of them. But during its 20 minute running time the world it creates is convincingly created and you get to know a lot about how the aliens operate and what humanity is doing in order to fight back (and where Sigourney Weaver (who worked with Blomkamp before) is present in the role of a leader). The effects are convincing and after watching it leaves you wanting more. In an interview with The Verge Blomkamp says that he’ll show more in Volume 2, but he also hopes that the public is up for this type of movie making with which he hopes to get it out through Steam and hopefully sell his movies directly to the public. This short has convinced me that it’s worth following the content that the studio is now producing.
You can judge for yourself though here:
