Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy

I can understand why the idea for this weirdness made its way to Miloš Macourek - a story about a writer who has the ability to materialize his own ideas and desires is a beautiful basis for a wry comedy. Unfortunately, this time, nobody wanted anything funny out of Macourek, and that's how it turned out. The serious sci-fi tone and pathos just don't go together with the bearded father that breastfeeds a baby with breasts that the baby enchanted for him, and out of respect for Jan Švankmajer, I prefer to completely forget about the monster. (15/10/2020)

This is probably one of the most underrated and strangest Czechoslovak movies I've ever come across. The Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy is, of course, a very bizarre and difficult-to-class spectacle that operates on a rather peculiar range of creative approaches to comedy. From very family-friendly scenes with naughty little blonde aliens, it then jumps into a lascivious episode with a crowd of naked people and, last but not least, into relatively frantic scenes of a rampaging space monster that spews fire and rips off people’s heads (with special effects by Jan Švankmajer). A playful and cheerful spectacle that many audiences may not be able to get their heads around. [The Shockproof Film Festival 2020] (12/03/2020)

In terms of its formal execution (and the crazy script, too, Macourek must have been on mushrooms), it was a rather unique affair in the history of Czechoslovak cinema at the time. After all, in what other film of that era of politically minded cinema, when nudity was still relegated to the realm of very subtle shots and graphic violence was almost taboo, could you see a film with crowds of people walking around with undisguised nudity and with brutally severed heads in plates of soup. And all of this, please, was shown as part of the then Workers' Film Festival. Had this film been re-released years later (it has never been shown on TV) so today's audiences could become more familiar with it, it would be a minor cult classic today. The only minor problem for me is how to actually rate such an obscure affair with muddled direction in a meaningful way, which is why I choose a cautious two stars. (24/11/2005)

My theory is that the director Vukotić deliberately shot material that left him free to go in any genre direction afterwards with only minimal editing as the situation developed. So in the film we can find the ideal basis for family science fiction, dreamy manchild, absurdist comedy, pure avant-garde, and soft porn. But somehow it didn't work out after that, apparently he lost interest in the film, so he just bolted it all together and dropped the mic. If this work is ever found by a real alien civilization, it will cook their brains. (09/03/2020)

It's understandable that a failed sci-fi writer's characters might materialize as two brats in golden spacesuits and their caretaker with a laser whip and a coffee machine in her fingers. But for Studio Barrandov and Jadran Film to bring this to life is beyond comprehension. When a blue Christmas ornament resembling a bauble flies around, Ivana Andrlová sings, and it’s so tedious you’d even groom a mustache on Věra Kalendová just for some entertainment. However, then things start to happen! First, a phallic proboscis harasses Ivana and the carnations, then goes on a rampage at a Balkan party. Torn-off arms, deformed guests, a flamethrower in action, Karel Augusta with a shotgun playing MacReady until he loses his head… I suspect that blind harmonica player was a disguised Carpenter, watching to see how it should be done in a year! Still, I ask the robot to pat her belly and make me time travel to let me forget everything I’ve seen. (26/08/2024)