The Incredible Invasion

This movie likely won't be of much use to the bulk of humans infesting the surface of the planet Earth. But it may interest Boris Karloff fans and amateur theatrical detectives who like to dissect bad movies like lab specimens. What you get here is one of the most disjointed and bizarre films ever made, a combination of what appear to be two films edited to seem like a larger whole. The first movie consists of about thirty minutes of footage featuring Boris Karloff playing a white suited scientist who invents a disintegrator ray device. The were filmed on soundstages in southern California, with some ending up in this film and others in FEAR CHAMBER, THE SNAKE PEOPLE and HOUSE OF EVIL.

The second movie was filmed after his scenes were completed in Mexico and attempts to match the Hollywood scenes with actors -- some the same -- wearing similar costumes on similar sets, reciting more or less similar toned dialog & engaged in similar actions. Idea being that they are on one side of the room and Karloff on the other: Sometimes characters who were present for both sessions walk back and forth between the scenes, which is quite strange. Their hairstyles and lighting changes subtly, creating a disjointed viewing experience that overwhelms whatever the script was about.

If memory serves, a space alien in what can only be described as an Art Neveau flying saucer gets wind of the disintegrator ray and decides it is too great a threat for mankind to posses. The alien looks like Yahoo Serious and wears a silver lame space jump suit that reminded me of David Bowie from THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. So did some of the flying saucer's design elements, consisting mostly of beakers with colored fluids bubbling through them. The spaceship is mostly shown from the inside too, requiring the viewer to sort of have to take the director's word for it's existence.

The alien takes possession of various cast members and compels them to sabotage the disintegrator ray, which is probably for the best after the local military gets wind of the situation and decides they want a portable version to serve as a weapon. This results in several conversation scenes where characters veer from the California shoot to the Mexican footage. It's a great lesson in how a film can be constructed, and we can only hope that we can learn from it or the seventy three minutes it runs is a waste.

Fans of Boris Karloff will likely be pleased, he's on screen a bit in this one and looks great in that white suit which sharp viewers will recognize as the same one from THE SNAKE PEOPLE, likely filmed earlier that day. Others are well warned to try something else.

1968's "Incredible Invasion" (Invasion Siniestra or Sinister Invasion) completed the Boris Karloff quartet of Mexican titles for producer Luis Enrique Vergara, as shown by the absence of Julissa as his daughter, replaced by German beauty Christa Linder, Yerye Beirute from "Fear Chamber" cast as the serial killer Thomas. Prof. John Mayer offers the octogenarian actor his greatest screen time at 24 minutes, a forward looking scientist of 1890 whose new invention produces a laser that destroys a boulder (a nice nod to "The Invisible Ray" of 1936), but alarmingly earns the attention of a space invader out to put an end to mankind's interference. Why the alien decides to use an accomplished razor wielding psychotic as a go between, continuing to supply him with more female victims to butcher, makes this a truly unpleasant viewing experience, and once Mayer too falls under the telepathic control of its evil influence (both characters giving off deadly signs of radiation) the picture simply stops dead with no further development. The local villagers are in an uproar as they search for the missing victims, every woman save for Mayer's daughter just another corpse for the morgue, far too much footage given over to sleazy exploits than its ailing star. What could have been the best of this final four is a jumbled collection of ideas that fail to coalesce, though Boris as usual is able to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear in beefing up Mayer's resistance to his brain's unwelcome occupant. The lone alien on display looks like a reject for Gerrit Graham's part of Beef in Brian De Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise," essentially a parody before there was such a thing. It's an astonishing twist of fate that this Karloff feature would actually echo the nuclear message of Lugosi's farewell "Plan 9 from Outer Space," whose invaders were just as rash and incompetent, while the mob of torch wielding villagers offer a pleasant reminder of the good old days at Universal. Few people could have caught up with this obscurity until the butchered VHS version called "Alien Terror," not the best way to enjoy Karloff's last screen performance, though sadly ironic is the ultimate fate of writer/producer Luis Enrique Vergara, following his leading man into the afterlife by dying just one year later at a shockingly youthful 47.

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

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.

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.