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District 9 Directed by Neill Blomkamp, starring Sharlto Copley, Rating R16 contains violence and offensive language

District 9 is a perfect science fiction movie, because it uses an out-there premise to tell a basic story.

It’s set in Johannesburg, where decades ago aliens — known to humans as ‘Prawns’ — arrived in a huge mother ship. They are living in squalid conditions in refugee camps, with no way to get home or even just back up to the mother ship. In return for alien weaponry, local gangs sell them cat food, which they have an addiction for. The Joburg authorities want to evict them and relocate them to another camp.

Of course it raises all sorts of themes, including apartheid, civil rights and the use of private security forces. But director Neill Blomkamp doesn’t really dwell on these. Instead he focuses on the story of a parent and child trying to get home – ET for a far more cynical generation of movie-goers.

Sharlto Copley plays Wikus, an agent for MNU (Multi National United), a private firm contracted to oversee the welfare of the aliens. But the MNU is more interested in finding a way to harness alien weaponry, which is biologically engineered so that the Prawns are the only ones who can use it. Wikus is in charge of the relocation programme, and goes door to door to hand out eviction notices.

What unfolds from there involves a reveal of alien technology and a change of heart for Wikus. It’s exciting all the way, starting off with documentary style and home movie footage, and slowly giving way to an effects-laden final half hour, complete with big guns, robotic exo-skeletons, spaceships and plenty of splatter.

The splatter department definitely shows a link to producer Peter Jackson. It’s all done with a sense of glee, complete with ‘wet cabbage’ sound effects. And the hapless Wikus is up there with Bad Taste’s Derek — an everyman who is literally falling apart at the seams.

It’s refreshing to see the aliens revealed within the first few minutes and in daylight too, breaking the tradition — which probably goes back to HP Lovecraft’s short stories — of leaving them as the final big scare in a film. The setting, combined with the documentary style footage, makes it easy to believe that this could actually be happening.

Yes it’s open to a sequel, which I hope doesn’t happen. But if this is an indication of the sort of film-making we can expect from Neill Blomkamp in the future, we’re in for one ‘fooking’ hell of a funride.