Strange Invaders
| Strange Invaders | |
|---|---|
Promotional movie poster for the film
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| Directed by | Michael Laughlin |
| Produced by | Walter Coblenz |
| Written by |
Bill Condon Michael Laughlin Walter Halsey Davis |
| Starring | |
| Music by | John Addison |
| Cinematography | Louis Horvath |
| Edited by | John W. Wheeler |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Orion Pictures (1983, original) MGM (2001, DVD) |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5.5 million |
| Box office | $1,362,303 |
Strange Invaders is a 1983 science-fiction film directed by Michael Laughlin. It was made as a tribute to the sci-fi films of the 1950s, notably The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It stars Paul Le Mat, Nancy Allen and Diana Scarwid. The film was intended to be the second installment of the aborted Strange Trilogy with Strange Behavior, another 1950s spoof by Laughlin, but the idea was abandoned after Strange Invaders failed to attract a wider audience. Scarwid's performance earned her a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.
In 1958, the town of Centerville, Illinois, was invaded by a race of aliens. The invaders could fire lasers from their eyes and hands and reduce humans to "crystallized" glowing blue orbs. They took over the form of the humans who were either captured or killed.
Twenty-five years later, university lecturer Charles Bigelow (Paul Le Mat) learns that his ex-wife, Margaret Newman (Diana Scarwid), has disappeared while attending her mother's funeral in Centerville, and travels there to find her. The disguised aliens all appear human and the town of Centerville appears to have not progressed beyond 1958. The aliens try to capture Bigelow as he escapes, but only capture his dog, Louie.
Seeing a photo of an alien in a tabloid magazine, Bigelow soon finds Margaret, who is now revealed to be one of the aliens. She warns Bigelow to escape with Elizabeth (Lulu Sylbert), their human/alien hybrid daughter, to protect her from the aliens, who want to take her to their home-world. Bigelow and Elizabeth escape from the departing alien ship and the townsfolk's blue orbs are transformed back to their original human forms.
Director Michael Laughlin teamed with Bill Condon, his co-writer and associate producer from Strange Behavior. The first image Laughlin came up with was that of a midwest landscape with an "old-fashioned mothership sliding in". He wrote the first few pages himself and then he and Condon completed the screenplay in two parts, each writing different sections. They wrote the script without any deal in place but were confident that it was going to be made into a film. They even figured out the budget, scouted locations, cast the actors, and worked on the production design while arranging the financing. This pre-production was all done at the expense of Condon and Laughlin. To help produce the film, Laughlin brought in his friend Walter Coblenz, who had been the assistant director on the Laughlin-produced film Two-Lane Blacktop. They shopped the script for Strange Invaders around Hollywood.
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Wikipedia