Alien Terror (1971)

As Good As It Gets

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Boris Karloff was a great actor, responsible for some of the most iconic performances in the horror genre and most effective in roles that showed menacing and sympathetic sides to his character's personality. Sadly, he was also an actor whose last few films didn't do justice to him or his career. The Incredible Invasion(or Alien Terror) is his last and while it is marginally better than House of Evil and especially Fear Chamber that's not saying much as it is still a mess, if there was a word that this movie is not it's incredible. Karloff of course is the best and only good thing about it, that the role is bigger here already makes it better than House of Evil and Fear Chamber and he performs with class and dignity, which is more than The Incredible Invasion deserved. Apart from Karloff the acting is just amateurish, Yerye Beirute brings unintentional humour in how bad especially he is. The Incredible Invasion is cheap-looking too, you get the feeling from the editing and photography that the movie was done in a matter of days(it mayn't have been but it honestly looks like it) while the sets are tacky and don't exude any atmosphere at all. The music is shrill and strident, while the dialogue sounds incredibly stilted and to even describe the direction is inept is insulting. The story has a cobbled together feel with no thrills, tension, scares or suspense despite having the elements that had the potential to make it so. Instead it was dull, often incoherent, thinly structured and far too strange for its own good. All in all, just a mess. Boris Karloff had a great career, but The Incredible Invasion was a very sad end to it, easily one of the absolute worst final films of any actor. 2/10 Bethany Cox

The Sinister Invasion (1971)* 1/2 (out of 4) This here was one of the four Mexican films Boris Karloff filmed before his death and this is one that was released after the horror icon had passed. In the film he plays Professor John Mayer who in 1890 has created a ray machine, which he shoots into space. The ray just happens to cross paths with a flying saucer and the aliens decide to come and destroy it but to do so they take over the body of a serial killer. Also known as ALIEN TERROR, THE INCREDIBLE INVASION and about a dozen other titles, this film is probably the most entertaining out of the films Karloff did below the border but that's really not saying too much. This is a hard film to fully understand as the plot never makes too much sense but I'm going to guess this is due to two directors making the picture (Jose Luis Gonzalez the Mexican stuff, Jack Hill the Karloff material). It's also worth noting that the aliens here are so stupid that they have to be the children of those seen in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. OK, one understands why they want to destroy the ray but they've got the technology to do so without taking over the body of this killer. This killer just ends up causing so many problems and yet the aliens keep on using him. The entire subplot with the killer is quite strange to watch but it does add a rather surreal feel to the picture. As for Karloff, he's certainly showing signs of his health issues but he's pretty good here. Unlike the other three films where he's basically just an extended cameo, he actually gets a pretty big role here, which is nice to see. The rest of the supporting players aren't as memorable but we've all seen much worst. The production values are cheap and it's obvious you're not in the 1890s but this could have been much, much worse. With that said, this was released a couple years after Karloff's death and you really have to wonder who would want to see something like this other than those curious die-hard Karloff fans.

It has poor lighting, poor sound(as everyone except Karloff is dubbed, and on one occasion even he is dubbed, by someone doing a very bad impression. The editing is bad, although this may be down to a poor quality hacked up print, but in general it looks like a cheap film with Karloff's stuff looking like it could all have been shot in a couple of days. There are some classic funny bits, unintentional. I don't know why but I find a woman (possessed by an alien) slapping a man till he just punches her and knocks her out quite funny. *slap slap slap* *thwack* man wins. The plot was not that unusual but it was quite hard to follow what was going on even if you were paying attention. Karloff had a cool voice. 2/10 - Maybe slightly watchable for occasional funny bits.

Boris Karloff helped the producer and director put this film on the screen. Boris dispite his illnesses and inability to walk around, made this film a classic for all Karloff fans. "Alien Terror" or "The Incredible Invasion" should never have been made, very poor acting with the exception of Karloff, poor photography and sound. It is sad that this film was the last feature film Karloff ever made.