Strange Invaders — Strange Invaders( Blu Ray)
Strange Invaders is an early 1980’s tribute/ take on the 1950s when aliens invade small-town America fare- but with a few neat twists, turns, and of course better (if-sparse) effects too. Here from Australia’s Imprint is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in an HD scan of the picture, and a few new/ archive extras.
Strange Invaders is a UK production filmed in both Canada and the US. It was released in the year 1983- it was directed/ co-written by American-born filmmaker Michael Laughlin. He has just three feature credits to his name- the other two are teenagers turned into killers slasher Strange Behaviour (1981), and New Zealand set period drama with Jodie Foster in Mesmerized( 1985).
The film opens with a flashback to the 1950’s and typical American small town Centerville. A couple are making out in a pick-up, folks are watching TV, etc. All of a sudden a huge spacecraft appears in the nighttime skies- then several things are beamed down- seemingly attacking the townspeople off-screen.
We then switch to 1980 where we meet our male lead Charles Bigelow( Paul Le Mat) who is a university lecturer in Entomology. He's teaching a class, and makes a few amusing quips- sadly these don’t last, as for the first half of the film he comes off rather un-dynamic/ flat.
His ex-wife is going back to Centerville, as apparently, her mother has died- she heads back leaving him with their around nine-year-old dark-haired daughter. At first, days pass, then weeks- so Charles decides to head down to Centerville with his dog. He meets up with bespeckled deadpan/ slightly creepy Arthur Newman(Kenneth Tobey) who runs a local B & B- he gets a room, his dog goes missing, and his car gets shot off the road by a lightning bolt fired by a reptilic bug-eyed alien.
He(somehow) lands up back in the city- first going to see one of his colleagues who bizarrely has a toddler crawling around in his office, then to a government department for reporting strange objects- getting no help from either. He walks past a newsstand, and spots a very trashy tabloid paper with a picture of the bug-eyed alien he saw on its front cover- he rushes over to their offices, where he finds the pieces writer Betty(Nancy Allen from Robocop) who is basically a hack who just pulled together a false story after getting through the photo some years back in the post.
As things unfold members of Centerville’s community come hunting for Betty- as they don’t realise the news stories all made up. Charles tracks down the origin of the photo, and we head back to Centerville for the finale.
The film certainly has a camp tone- which at points feels like it may fully develop into a comedy, but it never does. The first half of the film is ok, with the mystery of what’s behind it & Nancy Allen’s likeable screen presence keeping you watching. As we get past the halfway mark we get a few neat aliens peeling off their human faces effect, a few occasional literal soul-sucking moments, and some effective enough spacecraft effects.
The issue here is Le Mat as our lead man/ hero- he comes across as flat as a pancake for the first half of the film. As things go on he starts to show some emotion/ acting- though at points he does wonder towards hamming it up. Quite why he was chosen as the lead is rather puzzling- after doing some brief research I've found out he’s had nearly fifty roles over his career- so I guess this flatness was deliberate, but it certainly brings the film down a few notches for me.
I’ve always enjoyed the When Alien Invade films of the 1950s, and this most certainly is a loving tribute to the genre- aside from Mr Le Mat's performance- this is an entertaining & engaging slice of sci-fi.
This new region-free Blu-Ray features an HD scan- this looks good, with its mixes of 1950’s and 1980’s colours/ tones. On the new extra side we have Strange Films: The Unfinished Trilogy ( 24.51) this is a video essay from film historian Jarret Gahan. He first talks about Laughlin's debut film, and how it links in/ connects with the film to hand with its use of 1950’s-1960’s genre tropes- mixed in a 1980’s setting. He moves on to talk about the planned trilogy which would have been due to take in The Adventures Of Philp Strange- which was a sci-fi spy thriller set in 1940’s New York- the film never realized his third film Mesmerized was a box office bomb- sadly the director passed in 2020 due Covid related illness- so the trilogy will never be finished now. All in all a most interesting/ insightful featurette.
Otherwise, we get an archive commentary track from director Laughlin and co-writer Bill Condon. There’s an option for an isolated score and theatrical trailer. The release comes presented in glossy card slip- with the Blu-ray case taking in original artwork, and a film still inside.
If you like the idea of 1950’s science fiction films set in the 80’s then Strange Invaders will most certainly appeal. The film's scan looks good, and we get a small but decent selection of extras.