I just watched this film again recently and lo and behold, the strong influence of seeing my life though Kindertrauma eyes reeled its ugly head. Your influence on me is chilling.
This film is standard small town inhabited by space aliens Sci-fi formula. The plot is very similar to Fulci's ZOMBIE 2 (1979) but with an 80's Spielbergian flare. It's a PG film, but PG back in the day wasn't PG at all. More like a hard PG-13.
There is plenty of traumatic scenes for a 10 year old to stumble upon. The worst is when one of the aliens "absorb" the essence of a small boy. The boy looks with terror as his feet shrivel up and screams as his body caves in on itself. All goopy and gory like.
The effects actually hold up. The aliens are still pretty damn creepy looking with their black obsidian eyes!
The one problem with the film is lead actor Paul LeMat. He has about as much charisma as a floor lamp. He is void of any actor qualities. Even his name is dull. Fortunately the lovely braless chain-smoking Nancy Allen comes to the rescue. Everything she touches, she makes that much better.
If you love Nancy Allen and goopy 80's gore, (and who doesn't? I can't think of anyone) you can't go wrong with STRANGE INVADERS.
(place zillion pics of Nancy Allen here)
UNK SEZ: If you're looking for gratuitous NANCY ALLEN you have come to the right place! The only person that I know of who holds her in higher regard than myself is your very own Aunt John! Thanks a zillion Turnidoff! Any day that starts with a traumafession from you is bound to be a good one!
I must have watched Strange Invaders ten times when I was a kid – it was in heavy rotation – but I had utterly forgotten about it until I saw this post.
The alien shrivelation scenes were indeed very freaky.
Nancy Allen was really rockin' a 70s/80s hybrid Nancy Reaganesque 'do in this film. She's always had great hair. I prefer the 70s Farrah Fawcett cloud o' hair like she had in Carrie, but she transitioned pretty well into the 80s perm. Where do you come down on this important issue Unk?
Chuckles,
I have to agree with you. I'm leaning towards the longer Farah. Then again Allen really does work it in "Strange Invaders" even though she's treading dangerously close to the Aunt Pat "Poltergeist 3" look. The camera loves her no matter what.
I saw this one in the theater way back! I forgot all about the shriveling kid scene. Turnidoff is right the special effects really hold up. The face ripping-off scenes at the end are remain top notch. Plus you get some Louise Fletcher & Diana Scarwid.
She grew it back to full fluffy flow in The Philidelphia Experiment… then came Officer Lewis. The greatest Allen look ever is her intro in Home Movies. sigh…