Invisible Invaders

Director: Edward L. Cahn Edward L. Cahn

Overview

Monstrous moon goons plot to take over the Earth in this silly sci-fi/horror drivel. The formless aliens (whose invisibility was no doubt a cost-cutting measure) enact their insidious plans by taking over the corpses of the recently dead -- a premise bearing a more than passing resemblance to Ed Wood's legendary Plan Nine from Outer Space. Leading the zombie attack is John Carradine as an undead scientist; a hammy John Agar steps in to save the day by inventing an ultrasonic sound device to repel the aliens. Though not as delightfully awful as Wood's anti-classic, this is a definite clunker, padded with stock footage, littered with horrendous acting and even worse attempts at special effects.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/12/2016
UPC:	0738329203290
Original Release:	1959
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:07:00

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Film Historians Tom Weaver and Dr. Robert J. Kiss; Trailer Gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jean Byron	Phyllis Penner
John Agar	Maj. Bruce Jay
Robert Hutton	Dr. John Lamont
Philip Tonge	Dr. Adam Penner
John Carradine	Dr. Karol Noymann
Hal Torey	The Farmer
Eden Hartford	WAAF Secretary
Jack Kenney	Cab Driver
Paul Langton	Gen. Stone
Don Kennedy	Pilot
Chuck Niles	Hockey Game Announcer

Technical Credits

Edward L. Cahn	Director
Roger George	Special Effects
Robert E. Kent	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Invisible Invaders is one of those movies that critics at the time of its release loved to abuse and deride. Afficianados of science fiction and horror cinema, however, recognized it as an interesting idea for a movie, executed not badly within the context of its time. The idea of invisible aliens was a cost-saving measure that went back at least as far as W. Lee Wilder's Phantom From Space, but in place of hideous aliens, which the makers couldn't afford, the producers gave us the image of decaying corpses rising out of graves and attacking the living. This was a notion lifted right out of Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Plan 9 From Outer Space, but it is executed somewhat better here, if not as entertainingly. Edward L. Cahn's movie is actually a little bit closer in content and spirit to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, which it anticipated by eight years. And the performances are decent, if at times a bit over the top, while the effects are acceptable within the boundaries of low-budget filmmaking. Invisible Invaders was one of a quartet of sci-fi horror films made by director Cahn and producer Robert E. Kent (the others were It! The Terror From Beyond Space, Curse of the Faceless Man, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake) that had a long shelf life on television and a lot of influence on the taste of genre movie buffs, far beyond what any established movie critic of the era would have recognized. And along with It! The Terror From Beyond Space (which became the inspiration for Alien), it was one of two movies by the director that manifested its influence indirectly on horror cinema of the decades that followed.