Fans of self-explanatory titles rejoice! 2019’s Aliens, Clowns & Geeks leaves little question what subject matter the tale will explore.

Eddy Pine (Bodhi Elfman) struggles to ignite his career as an actor. His trajectory takes a surprising turn when he comes upon “the key to the universe” – which he literally poops out of his butt.

This makes Eddy the unwitting target of two alien species that crave possession of this object. Stuck in the middle, Eddy needs to do what he can to secure the safety of the Earth.

Geeks comes with a somewhat confusing title simply because the “clowns” are aliens themselves. As led by Emperor Beezel-Chugg (Verne Troyer), they battle more traditional extraterrestrials.

And what about those geeks? They become a less obvious aspect of the film, so don’t expect them in ample supply.

Also don’t anticipate an entertaining film. Really a vanity film made by writer/director Richard Elfman – composer Danny’s brother - a slew of other relatives, Geeks becomes a dud.

Partly because Danny wrote the score, Geeks gives off an unmistakable Eau de Tim Burton. However, the connections go beyond the music, as Richard’s mix of camp an B-movie vibes goes down a Burton path as well.

Unfortunately, Richard Elfman lacks the inspired sense of weirdness that Burton can occasionally conjure. Instead, Geeks feels like a contrived and self-conscious attempt to create a cult classic.

Everything about Geeks trumpets its own obnoxious sense of “wackiness”. The movie offers no real plot but instead becomes an incoherent collection of weird characters and oddball scenes without any real coherence.

Geeks doesn’t earn its quirks naturally. All those elements feel overly “thought out” and not organic.

The film also comes with a relentless pace, but not in a positive manner. Geeks never gives the viewer a chance to breathe, as though Richard fears if he lets up for an instance, the audience will see how flimsy and pointless the film is.

Geeks occasionally boasts some action and effects material, but it mainly brings a bunch of “comedic” character moments that vaguely revolve around the MacGuffin of the obelisk. These go nowhere and just become annoying before long.

The film wants to be a mix of Tim Burton and David Lynch. However, it just ends up as a self-conscious mess without any real narrative or thrust that acts as a waste of time.

Footnote: some low-budget music videos appear during the end credits.

Aliens, Clowns & Geeks appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The nature of the bargain-basement production led this to become a decent but not great image.

Overall sharpness seemed fine. Some exceptions occurred due to iffy visual effects, as those could lead to a few blocky shots. Still, general definition felt appropriate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Print haloes failed to materialize.

In terms of colors, Geeks opted for a pretty natural palette most of the time. Some scenes – such as a heavily red/blue nighttime fight – went more stylized, but these remained in the minority. Though not stellar, the hues largely worked well.

Blacks seemed reasonably dense, while low-light shots brought out mostly appealing clarity. Again, this never became a great presentation, but it seemed satisfactory.

In addition, the film’s low budget impacted its DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, as it lacked much ambition. The soundscape focused heavily on the front spectrum.

That domain offered reasonably good spread and music. Effects could veer a little monaural at times, but they usually broadened in an acceptable manner, and the score used the channels well.

Surround usage stayed minor enough to seem virtually non-existent. The back speakers echoed the forward realm but rarely – if ever – offered any unique information.

At least audio quality seemed positive, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music demonstrated nice range and oomph as well.

Effects also displayed appealing accuracy and dimensionality, with solid low-end. Due to the limited soundfield, this turned into a mediocre soundtrack.

A handful of extras flesh out the disc, and we get 33 minutes, 52 seconds of Behind the Scenes Interviews. In this compilation, we hear from composers Danny Elfman and Ego Plum, director of photography Howard Wexler, and actors Bodhi Elfman, Rebecca Forsythe, Angeline-Rose Troy, French Stewart, Steve Agee, Nic Novicki, Marco Antonio Parra, George Wendt, Malcolm Foster Smith, Marcos Ochoa, Andre Ing, Victor Chi, and Anastasia Elfman.

Danny Elfman offers wacky questions/answers, but the rest largely play it straight. The quality of the material varies.

For the most part, the participants praise filmmaker Richard Elfman and talk about how much fun they experienced during the shoot. Some stronger content appears, primarily from Troy, as she digs into interesting aspects of her performance.

Wexler also offers good insights. Otherwise, though, this becomes a spotty collection of notes, without much of significance.

An Interview with Writer/Director Richard Elfman spans a mere four minutes, 11 seconds. Elfman discusses a mix of oddball stories and production notes. Don’t expect much beyond nuttiness.

A music video for a song from the band Mambo Diabolico appears. This offers the same footage that shows up during the end credits, though it presents the elements in a screen-filling format. Both song and video seem as obnoxious as can be, though the sight of a scantily-clad Anastasia Elfman compensates somewhat.

Finally, trailers provides ads for Geeks, Forbidden Zone, Robocop TV series and Jack Frost.

A self-conscious attempt at a mix of comedy, sci-fi and film noir, Aliens, Clowns & Geeks becomes a mess. The movie feels more like a collection of campy scenes than a coherent tale, and it grates more than it entertains. The Blu-ray comes with adequate picture and audio as well as a few bonus features. This turns into a tiresome stab at a self-created “cult classic”.