Movie theaters were packed with the a cross section of ages, races, and genders, to see DISTRICT 9 and what exactly it's all about.. the $30 mil low budget Peter Jackson film is a science fiction epic with gore, voilence, and coded messages and lessons on racism and bias against people with a different skin color--or different skin altogether..

August is typically the month when summer sleeper hits are popular.. two weeks before high schoolers and college kids head back to the typical grind, people are searching for just a few more hours of summer.. just a couple more weeks of imagination..

The sleeper hit of 2009 may very well be DISTRICT 9--a film worthwhile of it.

DISTRICT 9 is fast paced and confusing at first.. Not a typical movie with a solid beginning, middle, and end. You have to suspend reality when you think that a giant spacecraft would hover above South Africa for 20 years .. Aliens have been put into a government camp called District 9. Abuse is regular and covered up--scientific experiments as well in government labs. And an unknowing and quite possibly pro-alien government agent is offered the top job of telling aliens to sign on the dotted line and go to an even smaller government prison camp.

The movie illustrates the best intentions gone awry.. humanity was shocked in the 1980s (fiction here) when the aliens were discovered malnourished.. They wanted to "help" them. But quickly, as people so often do, turned against them. They mocked them, even some tribes in South Africa ate them..

While Jackson's potential sleeper hit was science fiction, the frightening part was that aliens could have easily been replaced with any many races throughout the short violent history of humankind and it would have been science reality. It was the 20th century when the science of eugenics was practiced and perfected--with the agony of the outcome laid on the doorsteps of so many families for years to come.

DISTRICT 9 pulls no punches. It doesn't make you expect a happy ending, and depending on your feelings, you don't get one. DISTICT 9 is also unkind. There is no humanity shown to aliens.. no sympathy shown to the children of aliens. They are simply creatures that doesn't deserve human respect. Unless you walk in their shoes, of course..

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The film appears to be playing well with men ages 18 through 49 .. As a matter of fact, Warners Bros. released a film to counter DISTRICT 9: "The Time Travelers Wife"..

Walking out of the theater last night, it was apparent what many women thought of Peter Jackson's potential sleeper hit. One comment was, "What the F__ was that!?" Her boyfriend/husband appeared to know 'what it was about.' It's quite possibly that it's a gender thing.. Science fiction plays well with men, and typically not with women..

Developing..

BRYAN SMOLOCK THE HORROR REPORT SATURDAY 10:00 AM 8/15/2009