Don't get excited by the promising image of a flying saucer, it's barely seen in Bill Rebane's INVASION FROM INNER EARTH (sometimes seen on video as THEY). I liken this movie to a child's soap box derby car. It's rough around the edges, but it holds together and carries you along. Then it starts to swerve and rattle before going off a cliff and flying apart into a million shards. The story is interesting, following a group of people isolated in a woodland cabin and therefore safe from a mass invasion which is exterminating all humanity. It's only a matter of time, though, until the invaders find them. You can do a lot with that plot, and the first half is actually quite intriguing, but the film features the most stupefying and unexplained ending you've ever seen. I doubt the most dedicated student of metaphysics could unravel it to a point where it made a lick of sense. Rebane was often earlier than others in exploiting the latest scientific theory or craze (THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION is one of the first -maybe the first- movies to involve black hole theory, for example). Here, he capitalizes on the revived inner earth theory, though it has absolutely no bearing on the film itself. The invaders could've come from anywhere. Some rustic natural locations add some production value to what looks and plays like a student film. The most starling aspect of INVASION FROM INNER EARTH is that it was recently (unofficially) remade as one of those shot-on-video movies you find buried in discount multi-packs! I can't even remember the title of it, but it had many of the same problems as Rebane's film. The movie was so similar, I have to wonder if any legal action was taken against it.
(By the way, I don't recall the saucers in the movie looking that good. I had to screen it again to confirm that this is, in fact, an image from the film. It is, but I can see now why I wasn't sure. There are no less than three distinctly different flying saucers spread through out the movie!)
No comments:
Post a Comment