Invasion of the Animal People (1962)

Thanks for the memories!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

** HERE BE SPOILERS ** Recap: An apparent meteor lands in the snow cowered wilderness in northern Sweden. Strangely enough it seems like it did a horizontal landing instead of a vertical strike with crater and all. A team of scientists are flown in from Stockholm and travels out to the site. There it is apparent that it is no meteor but an alien spacecraft. At the same time there are reports of a huge monster running about.Comment: This is a typical B-movie scifi horror kind of thing that were not uncommon in the fifties. What I didn't know that there was one produced and filmed in Sweden. Unfortunately the story could have been better, it contains far to little action, far too little events. The ending is open, no questions answered, and in all honesty, pretty lame. Otherwise, I got what I expected. Some shots of the monster, a little love story and a bunch of minor goofs (such as the usage of a plane that has already been destroyed, but I guess the producers had only one available (they could have changed registration numbers though), and that skiers seem to go downhill almost always.) I think the cast did good with the material at hand, and there are no major errors in the directing either. The story is too thin, that's all. But they got to show some of Swedens landmarks... And it was fun as I have been in the region where the film was shot.

On the DVD I rented there were two versions of the same movie, Horror in the Midnight Sun, and Invasion of the Animal People. Although these are quite different, IMDb has these listed together as Rymdinvasion i Lappland. Horror in the Midnight Sun was a fairly decent movie. It's another low budget B movie from the late 50s. A lot of these have their problems and Horror in the Midnight Sun is no exception but it is an entertaining movie. It was also interesting to watch a movie of this genre that is Swedish/American made. It's a Swedish version of a B Sci/Fi monster movie. I'm glad I watched it. It was nothing special but still decent. Invasion of the Animal People was not as good and by itself would be a mess. When seen after watching Horror in the Midnight Sun, it does show how a movie can be cut up, pieces spliced in and the movie changed. Watching to see what and how the film was changed was the only thing I found interesting with Invasion of the Animal People. If you're really into 50s Sci/Fi B monster movies, you should take a look at Horror In The Midnight Sun but if you only have a chance to see Invasion of the Animal People, don't bother.

You know it's a bad flick if it has Jerry Warren writing and John Carradine (The Unearthly, Night Train to Mundo Fine) narrating. (True, Carradine was also in Peggy Sue Got Married and The Secret of NIMH, but this was way before that.) Bad special effects crush this movie's hope of ever being decent. This one is one that MST3K didn't do, but should have.Nice to see Sampo isn't the only bad Swedish movie.

"Invasion of the Animal People" is yet another classic Jerry Warren work, up their with "Creature of the Walking Dead"(1965). Warren took existing footage and added an intro with John Carradine rambling on about nothing and some scenes with Warren regular Fred Hoffman. The plot involves some cloaked aliens landing in Lappland and a huge Animal Person who roams about. The Animal Person (not People) special effects are excellent and the aliens are cool. Plenty of Jerry Warren atmosphere in this great low-budget sci-fi flick (just beware the occasional script flaws). Perfect for a snowy afternoon.