General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20263 min read

Voyage of the Rock Aliens

Voyage of the Rock Aliens is a 1984 American science-fiction comedy musical directed by James Fargo, in which a band of new wave extraterrestrials arrives in a guitar-shaped spaceship in the small town of "Speelburgh" while searching for the source of rock & roll.¹^•² It stars Pia Zadora, Tom Nolan, and Craig Sheffer, with Ruth Gordon and Michael Berryman in supporting roles.³

Key fact	Detail
Director	James Fargo; Troma's listing also credits Bob Giraldi as director¹^•²
US release	March 9, 1984⁴
Principal cast	Pia Zadora (Dee Dee), Tom Nolan (Absid), Craig Sheffer (Frankie), Ruth Gordon (Sheriff), Michael Berryman (Chainsaw)³
Premise	Alien ABCD and his band land in a guitar-shaped spaceship and give a beach girl a chance to sing¹
Runtime and rating	About 96 minutes; rated PG⁵^•¹
Production	Curb Entertainment and Inter Planetary Productions Corporation; screenwriters Charles Hairston, Edward Gold, and James Guidotti¹
Later releases	West Germany May 31, 1985; Sweden October 18, 1985; Canada TV premiere March 15, 1986; Finland August 1987⁴

Spoilers

Premise and cast

The story follows Frankie (Craig Sheffer), leader of a high school rock band, who falls in love with the singer Dee Dee (Pia Zadora). Their happiness comes under threat when a guitar-shaped spaceship lands on Earth.⁶ The alien band is led by ABCD (Tom Nolan), whose crewmates carry the rest of the alphabet as names: Jaklem (JKLM), Nopquir (NOPQR), Stovitz (STUVWXYZ), Aeiou, and F-Gee (FGHI).⁶ Ruth Gordon plays the town's Sheriff.³

The film mixes its musical plot with horror-comedy elements: Michael Berryman plays Chainsaw, a chainsaw-wielding psychopath, and Wallace Merck plays a character called the Breather.⁵^•³ The band Jimmy and the Mustangs also appears.⁷

Music

The film's original music is credited to Jack White, with cinematography by Gilbert Taylor.³ According to IMDb, early screenings of the film did not include the opening version of "When the Rain Begins to Fall," the song performed by Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora.⁸ One audience reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as roughly seven music videos stitched together with a plot involving a serial killer, a lake monster, a high school prom, and aliens whose spaceship is shaped like a Gibson Flying V guitar.¹

Release and reception

The film opened in the United States on March 9, 1984, and reached other markets slowly: West Germany on May 31, 1985, Sweden on October 18, 1985, a Canadian television premiere on March 15, 1986, and Finland in August 1987.⁴ It circulated under alternative titles including Attack of the Aliens and Attack of the Rock 'n' Roll Aliens in the United States, Alienígenas do Rock in Brazil, and Yön syke as a Finnish video box title.⁶^•⁴ In the United Kingdom, a home entertainment version running 95 minutes 19 seconds was classified by the British Board of Film Classification on February 1, 1991, distributed by Prism Distribution Plc; the BBFC lists its production year as 1990.⁷

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer score of 52 percent from two critic reviews, with more than 250 audience ratings.¹ Critic Dennis Harvey, writing in 48 Hills in 2022, called it a flop that nonetheless "screams 'Eighties'" in a way he suggested was worthy of a time capsule, and Jason Shawhan of the Nashville Scene called it "a future midnight-movie classic."¹ The American Genre Film Archive, which holds a restoration made from the original camera negative and offers it on 2K DCP, describes the film as "Devo meets GREASE," combining the experimentation of early MTV with the spirits of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Star Wars.⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026