Is this plan one from outer space? Don't blame aliens, blame the commies when all of a sudden, power sources all over the world are affected by mysterious waves felt by military scientists. But of course, the audience knows almost from the beginning that this is bunk. They saw a space ship enter earth's atmosphere and a carrot like monster with shellfish like claws emerge, sending bat-like critters from its bottom out to attack various innocent passers-by. America goes into a panic, evacuating its cities as strange buzzing noises emerge in the sky. Those attacked by the bat like creatures from the alien's butt are basically body snatched as their minds are now controlled by the aliens, killing anybody who doesn't follow immediate orders to head to a camp for the ultimate conquest.
Cult favorites such as Peter Graves, Beverly Garland and Lee Van Cleef headline the cast here, although the credits determine that an unbilled Paul Blaisdell was asked to wear the rubber carrot costume and flail the lobster claw arms. It's too bad that you don't see this costume among all the Elmos, blue breasted hookers and Spider Mans in Times Square. Even more astounding is that with the bat-like alien creatures, there seem to be no strings attached. Unlike Ray Harryhausen (who chose to deal with a giant crab by having him boiled in a hot water spring so those trapped in the forbidden world could have a lavish dinner even if there wasn't any butter or lemon in sight), this monster is a little harder to conquer.
While the location footage is well shot, the indoor sets are extremely cheap looking. Van Cleef gets a speech much like Bela Lugosi's revelation in "Bride of the Monster" where his obvious madness is revealed. Graves (shiskababbing one of the bats) and Garland win audience sympathy. Still, there's a feeling of "Haven't we already seen this before?" and obviously each of them were done a bit better and didn't have the unintentional laughs that this one does. With classics out there like the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", this just fails to live up to the moralistic goals it implies. However, when they do retrospects of the history of science fiction movies, this one seems to always get a clip in there, even having been the film that Elvira shows in her "Mistress of the Dark" movie with the film's conclusion there for those who have not seen it to enjoy in all its campy glory.
Cult favorites such as Peter Graves, Beverly Garland and Lee Van Cleef headline the cast here, although the credits determine that an unbilled Paul Blaisdell was asked to wear the rubber carrot costume and flail the lobster claw arms. It's too bad that you don't see this costume among all the Elmos, blue breasted hookers and Spider Mans in Times Square. Even more astounding is that with the bat-like alien creatures, there seem to be no strings attached. Unlike Ray Harryhausen (who chose to deal with a giant crab by having him boiled in a hot water spring so those trapped in the forbidden world could have a lavish dinner even if there wasn't any butter or lemon in sight), this monster is a little harder to conquer.
While the location footage is well shot, the indoor sets are extremely cheap looking. Van Cleef gets a speech much like Bela Lugosi's revelation in "Bride of the Monster" where his obvious madness is revealed. Graves (shiskababbing one of the bats) and Garland win audience sympathy. Still, there's a feeling of "Haven't we already seen this before?" and obviously each of them were done a bit better and didn't have the unintentional laughs that this one does. With classics out there like the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", this just fails to live up to the moralistic goals it implies. However, when they do retrospects of the history of science fiction movies, this one seems to always get a clip in there, even having been the film that Elvira shows in her "Mistress of the Dark" movie with the film's conclusion there for those who have not seen it to enjoy in all its campy glory.