Slash/Back

 Slash/Back is a winning little Canadian alien invasion yarn. Not Canadian aliens, or little Canadian aliens, though that would be something to behold- You know what I mean, stop misinterpreting me on purpose.

 Fighting the (non-Canadian) aliens this time are a bunch of very young Innuit teen girls who happen to live in Pangnirtung, a tiny town fifty miles south or so of the artic circle where the 'meatship', as it's later labeled, has the misfortune to land.

Too young to know to pine for the fjords.

 The aliens this time around are of the puppetmaster/bodysnatcher variety, taking over animal and later human hosts. This leads some of the more traditional-minded girls to compare them with shapeshifting monsters of Innuit lore... but more tellingly, one of them recounts The Thing's classic electroshock scene in detail.
 The girls first run into the aliens while out in the fjords shooting cans. They manage to shoot down one possessed polar bear when it attacks them (they just think it's sick) and quickly flee the scene... unwittingly leading the aliens back home. And as (bad) luck would have it, there's a big square dancing event that night out of town, leaving no adults available to fend off the invasion.

 There's a respectable attempt to make sense of the aliens and their actions, and despite some severe and very noticeable budget limitations, the aliens are surprisingly creepy - uncomfortably wearing ill-fitting skins and moving like broken robots; a late-film revelation of what's under the hood is a highlight.

 Beyond the low production values you also get a script that sometimes struggles with pacing, some pretty rough acting (even some of the principal characters seem to be reciting lines rather than acting at times) and a dearth of real menace.

 But despite all that the balance is pretty positive, even before taking into account this is a first time effort for a lot of the talent (including the director and the actors).

 It's a sweet, almost insubstantial slice of PG-13 adventure that gets by on warmth, charm, the unusual setting and some unexpected script choices. The mismatched foursome at the center aren't really your standard 'kids with bikes' subgenre protagonists, although the label fits the movie to a tee; for one, they don't really get along that well, and the film deals with the 'overcome your fears/rise to the occasion' trope in a more sensitive and realistic way than, say, your standard Netflix series might.