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John Ary's Aint It Scary Reviews #6 Of 31!! INVISIBLE INVADERS!!

Published at: Oct. 6, 2012, 2:31 p.m. CST


John Ary here with another installment of Ain’t It Scary Reviews.  Today invisible aliens plot to take over Earth using the bodies of our dead.


The 50’s must have been an interesting time for the world.  The idea of atomic energy had everyone excited for space travel, cheap electricity and new ways to improve everyday life.  It also scared the bejesus out everyone.  Threats of nuclear weapons caused tension among the world’s nations and setup a terrifying scenario in which the earth could possibly bomb itself into oblivion.  It’s these insecurities that the film Invisible Invaders mines for most of its story.

A hostile race of aliens threaten the earth and demand our immediate surrender.  They inhabit the bodies of the dead and stumble around like zombies attacking everyone in site.  A small team of scientists sequester themselves in a military bunker and must figure out how to defeat this alien menace before it is too late.  

If you like low-budget sci-fi from the 50’s and 60’s, you’ll find a lot  of the routine staples here... plenty of stock film of things like mushroom clouds, plane crashes and car wrecks... scientists talking gibberish, pulling random levers and building “ultra-hi-tech machinery”... reanimated corpses stumbling after people... hockey announcers getting attacked... awkward romances that spring up out of nowhere... a once great actor that shows up for 5 minutes in order to get top billing on the movie poster... It’s pretty much your average b-movie.

If you are looking for scares, you may want to skip this one.  It has a creepy setup (aliens using our dead as weapons), but the director chooses to focus more on the big ideas than instances of terror.  I like how the movie uses the 4 people trapped in the bunker as an allegory for the world and their fear of the future.  As the situation becomes more dire, each character functions more as a metaphor for man’s virtue, representing intelligence, bravery, fear and optimism.  The end leaves us with a not so subtle image of the U.N. and plea for nations to work through the age of the atom together.

Invisible Invaders: more sci-fi than horror... more alien invasion than zombie terror... more a product of its era than timeless classic.

Invisible Invaders is currently streaming on Netflix.  It’s also available on DVD with Journey to the Seventh Planet here.

 

Check back in tomorrow for another Ain’t It Scary Review as Lon Chaney Jr. limps into the final chapter of a once proud Universal Monster franchise.
 

 

For more video news, reviews and interviews subscribe to the AICN Youtube channel and follow me on Twitter.

Readers Talkback

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  • Oct. 6, 2012, 3:55 p.m. CST

    I'll check it out.

    by Fritzlorrerains

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 6, 2012, 4:07 p.m. CST

    Why review these?

    by Mennen

    Just curious.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 6, 2012, 4:26 p.m. CST

    Easy Budget

    by wormcheck

    for a sci fi film when the alien invaders are invisible

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 6, 2012, 5:09 p.m. CST

    lord almighty

    by vermicelliknid

    Really like your video reviews. And have, miraculously, enjoyed even these reviews. But for the lord sake, the underrated gem of Son of Frankenstein excepted, these films so far are all obviously horrendously bad. Rule No. 3!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 6, 2012, 5:12 p.m. CST

    to be fair

    by vermicelliknid

    black sabbath is a fun curio

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 7, 2012, 8:17 a.m. CST

    mennen

    by John Ary

    I set up three rules for the Ain't It Scary Reviews series this month: 1) All the movies will streamed. I want everyone to have access to these, so don’t plan on anything too obscure. 2) Surprise is the key. I can only watch films that I haven’t seen before. 3) The idea is to watch only good movies. I’m not searching out any of that so bad it’s good schlock. It’s all about quality. Unfortunately rule 2 has lead to some less than desirable entries.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 7, 2012, 8:18 a.m. CST

    vermicelliknid

    by John Ary

    I can promise that the film get better for the most part after Monday.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct. 7, 2012, 10:28 a.m. CST

    I believe I saw this

    by R. Fulton

    As a kid, and thought it was scary at the time. One image I seem to recall was of the invisible aliens walking through a swamp, with with the muck being pushed ahead like they were wearing snowshoes.

    Reply to Talkback