Invasion der Aliens

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 Icredible Invasion" aka. "Alien Terror" of 1971 is one of the rather crappy and very odd last films of the great Boris Karloff. Released in 1971, two years after Karloff's death, this movie was directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez, who also directed three other examples of Karloff's infamous last films, "Snake People", "The Fear Chamber" and "House Of Evil". While "The Incredible Invasion" is definitely a very crappy attempt of a Sci-Fi/Horror movie it is nevertheless very amusing and worth watching for its value as an unintentional comedy. While the movie does in no way rank behind "Snake People" in its oddity, it does not quite reach the unintentional fun-factor of "The Fear Chamber", as far as I am considered. Nevertheless it is great fun to watch and I could easily watch it again various times when I am bored and want to have a good laugh.

After Dr. John Mayer (Karloff) and his assistant Dr. Isabel Reed (Maura Monti) invent create a ray machine which produces some sort of nuclear power, a ray is accidentally shot into the universe where it hits a flying saucer. Reasoning that this sort of death-rays is too big a threat to the universe, the saucer's captain, a mysterious alien, who actually looks like a human being and wears a bizarre glittering seventies-style disco suit, decides to prevent earthlings from using it. The alien captain therefore lands on earth and possesses the brain of Thomas (Yerye Beirute), a serial killer of women, who operates as the alien's henchman from now on.

It would not be far-fetched to say that the Hill/Ibanez movies were to Karloff what Ed Wood's movies were to Bela Lugosi. Both brilliant actors and great stars of the horror genre, Lugosi and Karloff both ended their careers with some very odd films. Although they are without doubt unintentionally funny and they sure have some fans, however, the Hill/Ibanez films do in now way reach the cult status of Ed Wood's films.

"The Incredible Invasion" is terribly crappy as the Sci-Fi/Horror movie it tries to be, but it can be great fun if watched as the unintentional comedy it is. As far as I am concerned, every serious lover of film should watch at least one of Karloff's odd last films directed by Hill and Ibanez, just for the reason that they are some of Karloff's last films. Some other good reasons to watch "The Incredible Invasion" are lovely Christa Linder and Yerye Beirute, who also was in "The Fear Chamber". Don't expect any suspense whatsoever, but expect an unintentional comedy and laugh your ass off. 3/10

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.

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.