You may not be aware of this–I wasn’t, until about three hours ago–but District 9 actually started life as a short film called Alive In Joburg.

Needless to say, about the same time I found about that…okay, so first I swallowed my own tongue.  Then there was a really embarrassing five minutes where I pulled it out of my throat, and then I got over to YouTube to watch.  And thus, here I am, reviewing the short film that would become District 9.  Follow this link to catch it–it’s been up for just over three years but hasn’t cleared three hundred thousand views yet.  To call it the best-kept secret on YouTube might be hyperbole, but not by much.

Anyway, the plot on this one is about what District 9′s will be–aliens land, but they’re not out to help us or eat us or slaughter or enslave us–nothing usual aliens do–but these aliens are really just a nuisance.  Why are they here?  What do they want?  The answers will amaze you.

This really is an interesting predecessor to District 9.  Though the short by itself will prove to offer a whole lot more questions than answers, it will also serve to whet appetites very well for the upcoming film.  Watching Alive In Joburg has made me VERY excited for District 9, and I look very much forward as a result.

Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale safely issues a seven out of ten to a good film, not a great film, that does what it sets out to do, but only because it gave itself really, REALLY, low goals.