Written by / 8/04/2023 / No comments / , , , , , , , , ,

MICHAEL LAUGHLIN'S 'STRANGE INVADERS' STARRING PAUL LE MAT

Title: STRANGE INVADERS Year: 1983 Rating: ***1/2

It's said director Michael Laughlin and co-writer Bill Condon were headed for a titular STRANGE Trilogy after STRANGE BEHAVIOR and STRANGE INVADERS, which was financially scrapped — yet for vehicles both celebrating and intentionally duplicating nostalgic science-fiction/horror, a STRANGE Double-Feature is actually more proper...

So following BEHAVIOR... a mesmerizing, slowburn horror also inspired by then-recent teenage slasher flicks... STRANGE INVADERS is a full-blown 1950's sci-fi homage, right down to throwback Technicolor-style soft focus and beginning with aliens encroaching a rural Eisenhower-era town, where an opening scrawl reads how America had only Elvis's pelvis and Communism to fear...

Dey Young and Dan Shor in STRANGE INVADERS

As cult actors Dey Young (ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL) and Dan Shor (TRON) provided the youthful leads in the first, here they're THE BLOB inspired car parked/kissing couple... that are never seen again...

Taking us right into the 1980's where cool-guy college professor Paul Le Mat teaches an entomology class... the study of bugs... providing the AMERICAN GRAFFITI star an ironic transition from bookworm to anti action-lead, winding up in search of his missing ex-wife (who he has a child with) in the small town she grew up... the same one we'd already witnessed being taken over by UFO's...

Nancy Allen in STRANGE INVADERS

So there's little suspense when he arrives, and the monotone weirdness of the spiffy anachronistic town-folk are already known to the audience yet entirely unknown to Le Mat's Charles Bigelow, whose desperate quest really ignites back in the city, attempting to report the formidable aliens he witnessed — a visually jarring revelation spoiled far too soon...

Thus introducing glib government agent Louise Fletcher, overlong flashbacking psych-ward patient Michael Lerner, and ingenue Nancy Allen, who, as a writer of National Inquirer style fake alien stories, and having been spotted conversing with Le Mat, is hunted by the most unique and interesting characters (befitting her previous CARRIE, BLOW-OUT and DRESSED TO KILL scream queen status)...

Fiona Lewis and Nancy Allen in STRANGE INVADERS

A lethal group of quirky 1950's-clad aliens in human-skin... led by small town greasy-spoon waitress turned bogus big city Avon Lady Fiona Lewis... providing an equal amount of violent horror into the science-fiction as there's science in the more horror-centered STRANGE BEHAVIOR...

Which is a superior entry — yet INVADERS still entertains as a brisk 90-minute genre hybrid... that could have been a more engrossing subtle-thriller than what's ultimately a mainstream action-packed attempt for a smash hit... that might've provided producers Laughlin and Condon their third unrealized venture.

Strange Invader from STRANGE INVADERS
Genre Veteran Kenneth Tobey in STRANGE INVADERS
Paul Le Mat and Nancy Allen in STRANGE INVADERS
Paul Le Mat and Nancy Allen in STRANGE INVADERS
Strange Invader in STRANGE INVADERS
Fiona Lewis and Paul LeMat in STRANGE INVADERS
Louise Fletcher and Paul LeMat in STRANGE INVADERS
Paul LeMat in STRANGE INVADERS
INTRO From STRANGE INVADERS
INTRO From STRANGE INVADERS
Dey Young and Dan Shor in STRANGE INVADERS
Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS
Fiona Lewis in STRANGE INVADERS
Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS with Lulu Sylbert
Nancy Allen, Louise Fletcher and Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS
Strange Invaders from STRANGE INVADERS
Jack Kehler in STRANGE INVADERS (landlord from Big Lebowski)
From STRANGE INVADERS
Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS with Nancy Allen
Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS with Fiona Lewis
Twilight Time Blu Ray for STRANGE INVADERS
Lost in Space Mark Goddard and Nancy Allen in STRANGE INVADERS
Veteran actor Charles Lane in STRANGE INVADERS
Jack Kehler in STRANGE INVADERS
Fiona Lewis in STRANGE INVADERS
Fiona Lewis in STRANGE INVADERS
Lost in Space June Lockhart and Paul Le Mat in STRANGE INVADERS

Share This Post :
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

DEFENDING THE BREEZY SEQUEL 'BREAKIN 2': ELECTRIC BOOGALOO'

Title: BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Year: 1984 Rating: *** Cannon Films' BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO  was rushed out the same...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "Yeah, and the devil serves lemonade, right?" David Proval, Kojak

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)THE BREAK 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)JUNGLE STREET 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)MODEL SHOP 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6)CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)SAM PECKINPAH 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

Most Popular Last Year