Consider that the film begins with an on-screen quotation in a guttural alien language, like something out of Dune. It imagines a future Earth that has become home to a group of alien refugees, not unlike District 9. It uses a scrubby desert (in Newfoundland!) to stand in for an alien planet, which we’ve seen in Star Wars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes and many more.

Even its title recalls such mid-century movies as Fantastic Planet, Forbidden Planet or Voyage to Prehistoric Planet. The Silent Planet also has a Strangelovian also-title: The Sad Dreams of Earthlings.

But the movie overcomes all these would-be pitfalls, thanks to a whip-smart screenplay from director Jeffrey St. Jules, engagingly delivered by the film’s two stars, Elias Koteas and Briana Middleton.