When her archaeologist father disappears on an expedition, Wanda sets out to look for him. What she finds is a secret underground world, where no one believes in life on the surface and where she and her father are taken for spies.

Albert Pyun’s Alien from L.A. is a great showcase of some of his more subversive ideas, a primary one being his engagement with subterranean worlds and the cultural possibilities they evoke. Pyun’s recurring fascination with underground societies frames the film’s lost city of Atlantis not only as fantasy spectacle, but a metaphor for countercultural spaces; self-contained ecosystems operating outside dominant norms. In this sense, the film resonates strongly with the communal, often marginal environments of video stores and genre fandoms, where alternative canons and identities flourish beneath the mainstream surface.

The film’s protagonist, a classic Pyun leading woman, further reinforces this ethos. Her awkwardness, distinctive voice and transformation from outsider to agent of disruption undermine traditional heroic archetypes, aligning her with figures who inhabit and ultimately redefine fringe cultural spaces, positioning her as a bridge between surface-level conformity and underground resistance that borders on ‘punk’. Indeed, even aesthetically, Pyun’s work embraces a lo-fi, handmade sensibility: theatrical production design, exaggerated performances, and stylised lighting produce a dreamlike artificiality. This aesthetic amplifies the film’s thematic concerns, presenting Atlantis as both a literal and symbolic constructed world.

At TFFF, we praise Pyun’s singular vision, but also the enduring creative power of
cinematic spaces that exist defiantly outside the mainstream.

This screening will be preceded by an intro.

- Kit Ramsay