Fantasia 2026: 'Our Effed Up World' Movie Review

At this point, it wouldn’t feel like Fantasia without an offering from Alice Maio Mackay. The prolific Australian filmmaker has dropped vampires, ancient parasites, cult murders, and even a Christmas movie, among others delightful genre goodies. She’s back once again with the world premiere of Our Effed Up World, tackling a neon-soaked ‘80s throwback sci-fi horror with her roguish, lo-fi, deep-baked queer sensibilities, and the result is a damn fine time.

 

After the death of her grandmother, Sheri (Sara Thompson, One of Us is Lying) floats through her daily existence smoking weed, distracting herself with empty relationships, picking fights with anyone available, especially her astronomer father, Hank (Scott Major, Neighbors). Mostly she kills time hanging out in a video store with her slacker pals Poppy (Annapurna Sriram, Fucktoys), Finn (Jess McLeod, Normal), and Ash (Karis Oka, Girl at the Window). That is until a meteorite carrying a sinister extraterrestrial presence lands in town and kicks up some business.

 

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What works best in Our Effed Up World is that it takes the time to let characters and relationships breathe and develop naturally, allowing the audience to get to know them by how they act and interact, rather than dumping information at our feet. There’s an earnest bond and natural chemistry between the friends, and though strained, the same is true of the bond between Sheri and Hank. The film is most engaging when it’s basically a stoner hangout dramedy about friendship and loss, which grounds things and ups the stakes when the aliens show up to absorb people and their consciousnesses. 

 

Time, however, is also the biggest thing working against the movie. The official runtime is 67 minutes, but even with that diminutive count, the credits roll at a hair past the 60 minute mark. This limited space causes most of the major issues. There are awkward jumps in time, pieces that don’t always fit with one another, and the script skips or at best skims over a lot. There are plenty of interesting ideas presented. On the human side, there are themes of grief and healing and the like, and on the space invader side I love the idea that our collective neurosis can infect and screw up the aliens. But there’s never room to explore them with any depth or insight. The result often plays disjointed and slight, and by the time the aliens fully arrive on the scene, it’s a dead sprint to the finish line. (Also, the characters are pretty damn chill about encountering visitors from space, just saying.)

 

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For all its faults, and there are plenty that will surely turn off many viewers, Our Effed Up World is still a breezy, earnest, imminently watchable bit of genre fun. Produced for little-to-no money (I Saw the TV Glow director Jane Schoenbrun joined up as a producer), this has the infectious energy and enthusiasm of friends making a movie together and having a ball. That joy and zeal easily carry on past the flaws and hiccups and lack of resources that could otherwise hang it up. Mackay’s movies are and continue to be a blast to watch. [Grade: B]

 

Find all of our Fantasia 2026 coverage here.