Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 12, 2015

Were the fifties really the innocent halcyon days of yore we’ve been led to believe? Think about it for a moment: sure, the economy was booming in a post World War II orgy of consumer excess, and newfangled modern conveniences were the order of the day, with an emphasis on American ingenuity that engendered significant civic pride. But peek beneath that shiny new product surface and a number of troubling issues and/or elements start to be noticeable. The Cold War had erupted in the wake of actual conflict, and brought with it the Red Scare and nuclear paranoia that would come to define in large measure this entire decade. The United States was beginning to learn there were limits on what its military might could accomplish (as evidenced by Korea, a presaging in some ways of the later Vietnam conflict), and at home certain social unrest, as personified by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., was starting to fray at the edges of a perceived national identity. And of course the cultural threats of rock ‘n’ roll and juvenile delinquency seemed to at least hint that not all was well within this supposed Utopia, at least from a certain adult perspective. That litany of “best of times, worst of times” is addressed in a text crawl that attends the film's opening, one which tends to give Strange Invaders a kind of weirdly dichotomous tone at times, for one of the film’s central conceits is that a horde of aliens took over a sylvan all American town circa late fifties—and kept it there, timeframe-wise.

Director Michael Laughlin in fact emphasizes that rosy colored nostalgic ambience as he introduces the audience to a number of picture perfect 1950s tableaux. Farmlands are pristine and scenic, and inside various domiciles well behaved children play to the flickering light of a black and white television screen as perfectly coiffed and well dressed women provide the foodstuffs. Was life ever really like this? It’s a perhaps unspoken subtext, but one which comes back to inform the film later, when a “contemporary” (i.e., circa 1983) interloper entomology professor named Charles Bigelow (Paul Le Mat) gets to the town of Centerville. (“Centerville” seems to be a generic term for a quaint American village, at least as evidenced by the use of that same name in unexpected contexts like Frank Zappa’s scabrous 200 Motels, where the town is described as “a real nice place to raise your kids up at”). Before that current day scenario unfolds, however, the film quickly details an alien incursion back in the fifties, courtesy of some brief glimpses of UFOs (which amorously inclined teenagers don't notice), and a kind of fun throwback to actual monster films of the 1950s that shows the shadow of a visitor from outer space about to do something to one of those very teenagers.

Strange Invaders was the brainchild of Laughlin, along with Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Mr. Holmes) at a point early enough in his career that he was still billed as William, and Walter Halsey Davis. The film was initially planned as the second outing in a proposed triptych which was begun with Dead Kids. A number of factors intervened between plan and execution, including the fact that Strange Invaders’ less than spectacular takeover at the box office put the kibosh on the proposed third entry in the series. But Laughlin and his team even found getting to the second film a bit of a challenge, and some of their initial ideas, like casting Strange Behavior’s Michael Murphy in the Bigelow role, fell by the wayside. Like Strange Behavior, though, Strange Invaders starts to ply a paranoid strain that plays artfully against the perceived complacency of a 1950s setting.

When Charles’ ex-wife Margaret (a pretty lamentable Diana Scarwid) more or less disappears under mysterious circumstances, Charles investigates by going to the little town where she grew up, which of course is Centerville. There, in a number of vignettes that play out like sly versions of a similar approach fostered in the old short-lived Quinn Martin series The Invaders, Charles starts meeting ostensible townsfolk who are decidedly on the odd side, including seemingly being stuck in a prior generation's era, and who also seem to not be entirely forthcoming about affairs. For a number of reasons Charles decides it’s best to hightail it out of there, which is when, perhaps in a panicked frame of mind, he’s pretty sure he’s caught side of an appropriately buglike alien.

That sets Charles off on a quest to figure out what’s going on, a journey which brings him into contact both with a perhaps duplicitous government agent (Louise Fletcher) and an at least potentially helpful journalist (Nancy Allen). What’s interesting about all of this is that this whole central section of Strange Invaders actually turns out to be something of a cheat, a willful misdirection that draws attention away from what turns out to be one of the cruxes of the plot, the fate of Charles’ daughter Elizabeth (Lulu Sylbert). This may be an attempt to draw attention away from a bit of a logical lapse that attends the film’s climax, when of course Charles gets to confront the aliens and the reason for the visitors’ stay is revealed. Strange Invaders may feel like a bit of a cheat here as well, trading in a fair amount of paranoia that it's built up for an almost Spielbergian denouement that tugs at the heartstrings while perhaps dancing around rigorous logical analysis.

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Strange Invaders is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Elements are in very good to excellent condition, with very little in the way of nicks, dirt and other anomalies entering the fray. Colors are also appropriately vivid and well saturated, with some of the visual effects' use of deep blues being especially effective. The grain field is fairly heavy throughout the presentation, and in fact fluctuates rather widely at times, occasionally taking on a chunky and slightly digital looking appearance (see screenshot 7 for one example). A lot of the film looks intentionally soft, as if Laughlin and DP Louis Horvath wanted to play up the dreamlike aspects of a town caught in the 1950s. The film is also awash in a lot of optical effects, and those bring with them the expected uptick in softness, grain and dirt.

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Strange Invaders features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which capably supports the film's dialogue, effects and fun score by John Addison. There are a few moments, like the opening scene of the mother ship and its jettisoned smaller craft that probably could have benefited from some surround revisionism, but on the whole the low end here is generally quite forceful, and fidelity through the midrange and upper frequencies is clear and problem free.

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary features director Michael Laughlin and writer William (Bill) Condon. This is a nicely conversational and informative commentary which gets into various aspects of the once planned trilogy and some of the perhaps questionable plot mechanics.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1:25)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Strange Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Strange Invaders might have made more headway had it more forcefully exploited its sly, winking take on various science fiction tropes. As it stands, there are a number of passing references (watch for overt appearances by Steven Spielberg and The Day the Earth Stood Still) within a not so subliminal throwback to science fiction outings like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars (the original, if not the remake which appeared after this film). But the film never quite achieves the right balance between whimsy and paranoia, and the ending seems to jettison a lot of the previous plot mechanics in a perhaps understandable effort to tie everything up with a more or less happy ending. Still, the film is undeniably enjoyable, albeit in a weirdly goofy way a lot of the time. Technical merits are generally very good to excellent, and Strange Invaders comes Recommended.