In light of Colin and Greg Strause’s alien invasion flick SKYLINE being on the horizon, we thought it’d be fun to compile a litany of some of the best all time entries in the respective sub-genre. After all, the UFO, alien-invasion, alien-visitation paradigm has been in place for many decades, harkening back to the Red Scare pictures of the 50s that, through science fiction and intergalactic contact, often served as commentary on the Cold War communist threat. As time marched on, the subtext altered…the special F/X advanced greatly, the perceived threat of an extraterrestrial even softened…in some cases to far more intimate place. If not one of total unity, certainly to a more harmonious place…at least the willingness on both sides (human and non) to arrive at such a destination. So here, now, is my top ten Alien Invasion/Alien Visitation movies!
MINOR TO MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!
#11. (Honorable Mention) KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)
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Alright, why not kick this bastard off with a little levity? As much of a cult-picture as there ever was, The Chiodo brothers’ wildly energetic, off-the-wall B-movie KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE is near and dear to many a AITH staffer’s hearts…so much so that it just edged its way into the top ten. For the uninitiated, the film chronicles a gaggle of blood-thirsty clown-looking aliens who arrive on Earth via tent-like mother-ship. Not only playing to the universal fear that plagues people around the globe, clowns, it also adheres to the malefic depiction of extraterrestrial coming to Earth to subsume human life. Made for a paltry $2 million (mostly allocated toward production costs, the brother built most of the clowns themselves), KILLER KLOWNS isn’t a particularly scary picture, but it’s a fun one…at times equally unnerving as it is side-splitting!
#10. XTRO (1983)
Perhaps our most obscure inclusion, Harry Bromley Davenport’s XTRO is far less of a technological marvel than most on our list, in essence substituting personal horror for massive eye-popping action sequences. That being said, I can’t quite codify the film as giving a more intimate or sympathetic portrayal of otherworldly beings. For the uninitiated, XTRO is about a father and husband who returns home three years after being abducted by aliens. Only problem? Dude comes back as a blood-thirsty crab-like mutant with the foulest of intentions. Extremely bizarre, at times off-putting, XTRO’s indefatigable alien-rape sequence easily catapults the film to one of the most disturbing on our list. Cheap, trashy, irredeemable…if you like hardened horror tropes with your alien-abduction, XTRO is most certainly for you!
#9. INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
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Who can forget Big Willy in a putrid hair-fade and oily crustache? Roland Emmerich’s 1996 magnum-opus INDEPENDENCE DAY could very well be responsible for the grossly over-bloated Hollywood tent-pole attraction of today. We’ll overlook that assessment for now, and focus on the context of this 145 minute epic-spectacle. Y’all know the gist…when a humongous alien spacecraft begins obliterating major U.S. cities on July 3rd, it’s up to a few key cogs in the U.S. military and government to forever quash the incursion. The real feat for Emmerich here is, no matter how big in scope and scale, now matter how ridiculous and over-the-top the on-screen marvel, he grounds the film in human relationship. It’s not all about explosions and large scale destruction…Emmerich often lends a humorous touch (Smith, Goldblum) of humanity to his vision of the end of the world.
#8.FIRE IN THE SKY (1993)
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I, like many of you I’m sure, was at a very impressionable age by the time Robert Lieberman’s FIRE IN THE SKY hit cable. As such, you may share the same inability to shake what’s become one of the most indelible shots in the history of the alien invasion/visitation template. Of course, I’m speaking of D.B Sweeny being eerily struck, levitated and pulled onto an ungodly alien mother-craft. I seriously still can’t shake that image some 15 odd years later, nor can I truly explain the feeling its left in me ever since. However, it’s upon revisiting the movie – about an abducted logger and his terrified buddies – is the ensemble acting of Peter Berg, Robert Patrick, Craig Scheffer and Henry Thomas…not to mention Sweeny, whose haunting retelling of his experience aboard the craft still rings as uncomfortable as any other on our venerated list.
#7. INVADERS FROM MARS (1986)
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Perhaps a lesser known, minor work from Tobe Hooper, his 1986 film INVADERS FROM MARS is a oft-panned remake of a 1953 film of the same name. The ’53 version may actually be a better film, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t shred a little 80s B-movie cheese over the list. Hooper’s rendition – about a little snot nosed punk who becomes strangely affected by the landing of a mysterious craft in a nearby field – suffers from what a lot of 80s sci-fi flicks do; bad acting by its central lead. Good thing Karen Black, Bud Cort and Louise Fletcher are on hand to offer some comic relief. You blend that with Hooper’s trippy use of color, the bold point of view told from the kid’s perspective, the eye-bugging special F/X, the portentous atmosphere…INVADERS FROM MARS is a new marriage of horror old and new.
#6. WAR OF THE WORLDS
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Nope…sorry Tom and Steve, your version didn’t pass muster! Instead, a coveted top spot goes to Byron Haskin’s cinematic adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells thread THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Produced in the apogee of science-fiction’s golden age, Haskin’s film – about a destructive Martian fleet out to destroy every last bit of life on Earth – is both populist entertainment and thought-provoking terror. Sure, Gene Barry gives more of his fair share of smoked-ham line readings, but the interactions between humans and Martians are effectively harrowing. Fusing rudimentary special F/X (practical ones at that) with old fashioned storytelling, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS holds up 57 years later as a formidable example of science fiction done right!
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!