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Extraterrestrial

Canadian actress Brittany Allen caught her big break on soap opera pillar All My Children back in 2009, playing the young and vulnerable Marissa Chandler. The complex role caught the attention of viewers and critics alike, and in 2011, Allen took home the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Young Actress in a Drama at the age of 25.

Since her soap gig, Allen has appeared in the hit Syfy series Defiance and starred in the campy zombie-demon flick Dead Before Dawn 3D. Sticking with the sci-fi and horror themes, Allen happily hopped aboard The Vicious Brothers spaceship when they asked her to star in their latest tale of alien terror: Extraterrestrial, now out on VOD.

Allen chatted with us about working with the wave-making directors, falling head over heels for her character, and her upcoming projects.

Extraterrestrial follows April (Allen), her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma of the Harry Potter franchise), and their friends out to – you guessed it — a cabin in the woods for a weekend of good ol’ fashioned binge-drinking and debauchery. Upon arrival, Kyle proposes to April who turns him down to accept a dream job in New York. Right off the bat, April establishes she’s smart, driven, and adamant about making a future for herself: this weekend getaway is the last hurrah. Needless to say, Kyle is crushed. The party carries on however, until aliens crash land and start cramping everyone’s style. These creatures have not come in peace and after April blows one away with a rifle, it’s war.

Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz of filmmaking duo The Vicious Brothers took the independent world by storm in 2011 with their fun and frightening debut, Grave Encounters, which follows a ghost-hunting reality TV crew who gets more than they bargained for after shacking up in a condemned asylum for a night. The film went bonkers through the festival circuit and picked up even more steam after landing on Netflix, which helped make it an instant classic in this new wave of found-footage DIY horror.

“It was one of the best actor-director collaboration I’ve ever had,” Allen admitted, “We were all on the same page. They’re young and honest and passionate. There was such a mutual respect for each other.” What’s refreshing about duos’ films is their borderline refusal to over-sexualize their female characters, something rarely seen in contemporary horror. “It was so refreshing to read a female character who has something to say and a real personality, not like some cookie cutter.”

Throughout the film, April’s agenda changes drastically, but one constant is her integrity. In the beginning of the film, she turns out the proposal of someone she loves. After the aliens wreak havoc, she steps up to protect her friends when no one else will and by the end of the film, she risks her life to save her man and stand by him because, well, she wants to. “What I loved so much about April was her strength,” explains Allen, “I feel like I learned about myself through her.”

When she isn’t slaying aliens, Allen likes to create her own work and her upcoming short, Valentine’s Day, is currently in post-production. “We shot it in one night in my living room and it was a really beautiful and special night,” she says. The romantic short, which Allen produced, wrote, and directed, is he first of many personal creative endeavors, she hopes. “It’s tough as an actor because you’re putting yourself out there a lot and you’re waiting for someone else to say, ‘Yes,’ which can make you feel pretty powerless,” Allen explains. “It’s important to not wait for anyone else to tell you it’s okay to do it. You have to find a way to do it yourself.”

It’s tough to replicate the success of a great debut, but The Vicious Brothers have a sure shot with Extraterrestrial and having Brittany Allen as their lead certainly helps. Catch it on VOD before it hits theaters on November 21st.

[Where to stream Extraterrestrial]

[Where to stream Grave Encounters]

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Photos: Abduction Films/Manis Films/Pink Buffalo Films