Invasion der Aliens

Boris Karloff once again gives a performance that outclasses a shoddy production. The last of the four Mexican-American cheesy B's that the genre star made before his death, it stars Karloff as John Mayer, a scientist in 19th century Europe. He's perfected a ray machine; it attracts the attention of a rather harmless looking spaceman. Believing that Mayers' invention must be destroyed, the spaceman (Sergio Kleiner) forces lady killer Thomas (the hulking Yerye Beirute) to work for him, and the psycho infiltrates the Mayer household.

Also starring Enrique Guzman as young scientist Paul Rosten, Christa Linder as Mayers' lovely niece Laura, and an appealing Maura Monti as Mayers' disfigured assistant Isabel, "The Incredible Invasion" a.k.a. "Alien Terror" may be just the thing for some lovers of cinematic trash. Granted, it can be slow and dull at times, with uninspired direction and a silly script co-written by actor Karl Schanzer (whom you may remember as the sleazy lawyer in "Spider Baby"). It doesn't have any real atmosphere, and the score is hilariously ineffective. But it does offer some fun, provided you're partial to this sort of thing to begin with.

As with the other movies, this had Mexico-lensed scenes helmed by Juan Ibanez, and Jack Hill (the B movie great who gave us classics like "Coffy", "The Big Doll House", and "Switchblade Sisters") handling the L.A. studio scenes. (Jose Luis Gonzalez de Leon is credited as a co-director.) Sadly, Karloff's failing health is apparent; he couldn't move about very much, and required the use of a mobile oxygen unit, but he's still effortlessly delightful, giving as much as he can to a fairly standard kind of genre character.

It may be of some interest to people to compare these four movies and decide how best to rank them. This isn't the most entertaining, but neither is it the worst of the bunch.

Five out of 10.

Aliens arrive on Earth in an art-deco gazebo, their mission to destroy the powerful Tharg ray invented by well-meaning boffin Professor John Mayer (Boris Karloff). To achieve their goal, the visitors possess the body of a Mexican Jack the Ripper-style maniac named Thomas (Yerye Beirute), and then take control of the professor as well. However, Thomas's sexual urges prove too strong for the aliens to control, and after killing several women, he attacks Laura, forcing John to find the strength to fight the invaders.

Alien Terror (AKA The Incredible Invasion) is one of four Mexican Boris Karloff movies co-directed by Juan Ibáñez and Jack Hill, the others being Snake People, Fear Chamber and House of Evil. All four were released after Karloff's death in 1969, meaning that he was spared the pain of ever having to watch them. To be fair, Alien Terror isn't completely unwatchable: it's crappy enough to be amusing, Karloff is as enjoyable as always, and there's the added bonus of beautiful blonde Christa Linder as Karloff's niece Laura, who flashes some skin while taking a bubble bath, and buxom brunette Maura Monti as sexy scientist Isabel Reed, who is drop dead gorgeous despite much of her face and neck being covered by scars.

Of the four Mexican Karloff films, Snake People and Alien Terror are worth a one-time watch for fans of the legendary horror actor - I cannot say the same for Fear Chamber and House of Evil, which are abysmal.

Boris Karloff was an unusual actor in that as he aged, he didn't slow down making films even though he was a physical mess. He had advanced emphysema and could barely walk due to a crippling back injury and arthritis....but he kept plugging away...mostly in very cheap international productions. But here's the weirdest part of it. He knew he was dying and deliberately filmed parts of MANY films...Mexican and Spanish...with the assumption that the filmmakers would later make the rest of the movie after Karloff's death! I can only guess that he either wanted to leave some money to his family or perhaps he simply couldn't stand NOT acting! As a result, a couple years AFTER Karloff had assumed room temperature, his films continued to appear in theaters. I cannot think of another actor who did this....and it's a bit creepy. "The Incredible Invasion" (aka "Alien Terror") is one of these posthumous productions....and it's the last one to appear in theaters.

"The Incredible Invasion" is available in two forms....with Karloff dubbed into Spanish or the rest of the cast into English. I was only able to find the Spanish language version. My Spanish isn't great by any stretch, but I decided to watch this in order to see just how able Karloff was to make movies at this point life...as well as whether or not the film was any good.

At the end of the 19th century, Professor Mayer creates a weird ray beam that he shoots into space. Aliens aboard a UFO see it and realize that humans are too stupid to have such power, so they dispatch an alien to inhabit the bodies of folks to make them kill. Why they just don't kill Mayer and destroy his ray, I have no idea.

So is it any good? Well, it's not as bad as a few of these later films, such as "Cauldron of Blood" or "The Snake People"...though this is hardly a glowing endorsement!! The acting is occasionally bad but the sets and special effects could have been a lot worse! You also see only a little of Karloff because he was too ill to film more...so they had to film around him and piece it all together later! Sadly, in one scene they obviously had someone don a welding helmet-like hat to hide his face because he was unable to walk about the room. This is reminiscent of a dentist holding a cape over his face in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in order to pretend to be Bela Lugosi...who had died before being able to film much of the story. Overall, a sad and silly film...one that does NOT beg to be seen today.

Most of Karloff's late career films are either exceptional ("Targets", "The Sorcerers", "The Crimson Cult") or godawful messes (pretty much every other 1968-1971 film). There really isn't anything in between, sadly.

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.

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.