SOURCE-DVD rip on Youtube
Yep I can hear yall saying "But Spaced Invaders isn't a horror movie!" and you are right. But it is set on Halloween day. So it qualifies.
Back in late April 1990 I went to the local movie theater to see a film that until maybe a month ago I had forgotten about. Then I heard the film reviewed on a cult movie podcast. Which made me want to see the film again.
A group of fairly dumb Martians intercept a rebroadcast of Welle's infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast. They assume this means the Martians are finally invading Earth and this group of space morons heads to Earth to help out.They land in Big Bean Illinois. It is Halloween night and of course all kinds of wacky stuff happens.
I love how this film manages to blend comedy and sci fi into a almost perfect mixture. By the time this came out I was in my teens. And I can't remember what about the movie caught my attention so much that I had to see it in a theater.
The moron Martians are of course the best part of the film. Each of them has a very distinct personality. And they got great voice actors to play the parts. I love the one Martian that sounds just like Jack Nicholson. And the Martian named Pez is another favorite of mine. With how well thought out each of the Martians personalities are I am shocked this film never became a cartoon. With crap like Dumb and Dumber and other unfunny movies getting cartoons why couldn't we have gotten a Spaced Invaders cartoon?
The cast is all pretty much great. With only 2 real well known people in the cast. First up you have Royal Dano. He plays the elderly farmer who's land the Martians land on. To me it feels like Royal is playing the same part he played in the 80s Sci Fi/Comedy cult classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The other known member of the cast is a really young Ariana Richards. She is best known for being one of the kids in the first Jurassic Park film. In this movie she has just moved to Big Bean. And her and her group of friends end up helping out the moronic Martians.
But even though the two I just talked about are the only known actors in the film the rest of the cast is damn good. With the kid who is in a duck outfit stealing the entire film. His comedic timing is off the charts and I wonder why this kid hasn't done more and bigger roles.
After listening to the podcast that was discussing Spaced Invaders I went to see how much a DVD of it would run me. Seems I got lucky. Spaced Invaders just recently got a re-release on DVD. Before this re-release used copies of Spaced Invaders on DVD were selling for upwords of 50 bucks. Now that the new release is out the prices have settled back down. There is also a blu ray release. Which I have ordered. But it didn't come in yet. So I did what I always do when I want to see a film and do not have a copy in my possession..I searched Yotube. And someone was nice enough to have uploaded a rip of the first dvd release.
Every year in my 31 Days of Horror I try to have at least 1 or 2 things that people can watch with their kids. I started doing this back in 2009. Because back then every year I would go spend part of October with my cousin. At the time she had a 8 year old son and another that was 4. During the day while the oldest kid was at school I would watch movies with her 4 year old. He knew I was into what he called "scary movies" and would want to watch some with me. But he was scared very easily. So I would bring stuff like Ernest Scared Stupid or The Willies. That way him and I could watch and enjoy a "scary movie" and he wouldn't end up with nightmares. That formerly 4 year old cousin is now a teenager. And I haven't spent October with him and his family in 5 years now. But odds are good if I was down there right now he would be sitting on the couch next to me,eating some popcorn and laughing his ass off at Spaced Invaders.
Spaced Invaders isn't a great film. But it is a fun movie. One that should have at least a decent sized cult following. Maybe one day one of the many cable channels will start airing it multiple times in October and turn it into a family cult favorite like Hocus Pocus.
Spaced Invaders gets a B+.
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