Invasion of the Animal People

source: Invasion of the Animal People

Invasion of the Animal People

I have seen a lot of obscure films and am pretty sure that this one must have had the lowest budget in making it. There is a man-like creature that is HUGE- he probably stands 40-60 feet tall. Anyway the Eskimo villagers throw fire torches at it.As for the plot- there may not even be one, other than these people go out into the frozen tundra to look for a cheapie spaceship and then end up skiing half the countryside. I do however, appreciate this show's obscurity- there is , as far as I've ever seen, nothing quite like it- It makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like "Gone With The Wind".

I'm from Sweden, and they don't make many horror/sci-fi movies here, so it's really nice to finally have this classic on DVD! Sure, it's really cheap and a bit slow sometimes, but it's still entertaining, especially if you're Swedish and recognize some of the famous guest stars. I have to say that I also like the monster design, it's quite unique, and the whole mountain setting gives the movie a great atmosphere. The acting is quite good too. I especially enjoyed the beautiful Barbara Wilson. Swedish actor Gösta Prüzelius also appears in the movie. He is best known for his role as Reidar in 1990's soap opera "Rederiet". By the way, famous Swedish singer Brita Borg, the girl singing in one of the scenes, passed away last night. She was eighty-three years old.

Can't actually rate this movie, it's so bad that it's good. It's either one or ten. The Swedish actors are talking really bad English, you can't believe it. For example "Who are you?", meaning "How are you." Microphones are visible sometimes. And at the "Royal Academy of Science", it's a handwritten paper sign pinned to the door. Very funny. In one scene, the hero leaves the heroin and is skiing downhill for a couple of minutes. Then the monster arrives at the girls place. She screams, and the hero hears it. Turn around and continue skiing downhill back to were he left her! And yes, "Lapplanders" live in Sweden, but they name themselves "Saami", "Lapplanders" are the inhabitants if the Swedish county "Lappland". And yes Saami hang around in funny hats, but not all the time.

If you like watching a bunch of people skiing around, you'll love this. An alien saucer lands in the opening round of the movie, and just sits there for about an hour of film running time before anything else involving it happens. I saw this on one of those late night live-monster host shows, and the riffs the guy did kept the movie from being pretty boring. There's some scientists that want to see the "meteor" that came down, a romance between a couple who flirt on the ski runs, and some other folks that do a reenactment of the mob scene from Frankenstein. You have to wait a long time to see the creature, a really really big hairy guy with ugly teeth, and his brief scene is pretty campy. Still, I liked the Jolly Neanderthal Giant. As for aliens, they show up only once too, just staring at somebody. (One is seen a couple of times from the back, always watching TV). Innocently silly and mildly amusing. There's loose ends at the end deliberately left for you to ponder. Or laugh at.

I recently obtained a copy (part of the excellent Sci-Fi Gold series) of Invasion Of The Animal People off E-Bay and found it OK if a little slow moving in parts. A spacecraft crashes in a remote area of Sweden and the Army and a geologist are sent to investigate this. They discover dead Reindear and then a huge hairy Yeti type monster on the loose which has come from the spacecraft. It kills some people and more animals and, as often in these movies, the monster kidnaps a girl. You don't actually get to see the monster until later in the movie and then it is mostly in the shadows. The copy I have is the American version directed by Jerry Warren and starring John Carradine. Although far from the best 1950's monster movie, Invasion Of the Animal People was fairly enjoyable if a little slow moving at times. To sum up, fairly average. Rating: 2 and a half stars out of 5.

This hauntingly atmospheric monster flick was one of my favorite creature features on Saturday afternoon TV when I was kid. It was known as "Invasion of the Animal People" (a great title, in my opinion - sleazemeister distributor Jerry Warren deserves credit). The talky and inane tacked-on beginning, while unnecessary, doesn't take up enough time to detract from the film's crude, grainy, and ultimately mesmerizing beauty. A UFO lands in the snows of Lappland, and its bald, telepathic (?) occupants accidentally unleash their twenty-foot tall hairy humanoid pet. The latter then terrorizes the local Sami as well as Swedish cross-country skiers. The on-location Arctic locales give the film a look and feel which is unique in drive-in horror history.

Actually it's a Swedish-American collaboration. A spaceship (that looks VERY much like a meteor) crashes in Northern Sweden before the eyes of some Samis. Some people, including the young geologist Erik Engström and the American Dr Wilson, travel up to a village in the vicinity to take a look at the ship - and Dr Wilsons beautiful niece Diane. At about the same time the aliens (who never speak, but sound kinda like synthesizers) release their pet - a hilarious, 3 metre high, furry monster with ridiculous teeth (you've got to see it for yourself). I guess you get the picture. Without spoiling any of the fun I can say that the rest of the story involves wrecking of Sami villages, a totally uncalled-for * scene (well, almost) , and a love affair (WHO could it be between?). This is a 50's monster turkey with real class, it has all the cliches and very few dull moments. If you watch it until the end, you get to see a visual effect that is BY FAR the worst one I've ever seen.

One thing to know about this movie is that it was made in two different versions. One Swedish and one American. Most of the ones who have commented this film has obviously seen the American edition that was edited and added with extra scenes. From what I've read here and heard from others, the Swedish version is much better, still a really bad movie though, and it's a shame that only the American version has made it to the video market.From what I know the Swedish version only exists in one, maybe two, 35mm copies in Sweden and they are frozen for conservation. I've seen it a couple of times and I cant help laughing. We used to show it here in Kiruna every year at our film festival, Arctic Light Film Festival, but had to stop because it was to expensive to thaw the film.