I cannot defend the fact that I enjoy this film, and I won't even try. It's all about a stripper from space in a sequined suit who crashes Robert Clarke's mountain cabin. Clarke has recalled that, in her first scene, the busty alien's spangled leotard split open, forcing Shirley Kilpatrick to back out of every scene in which she appeared. Kid-star Jimmy Hunt is our surrogate in this childish vision of a red planet invasion. Producer George Pal's best film still packs a frightening punch today.
Genuine suspense is enhanced throughout by a credible cast and pioneering special effects.
It's a crackling good paranoiac potboiler about seed pods making obedient vegetables of the whole human race. Still scary after 40 years. When it comes to guilty pleasures, watching the nation's capital being obliterated by soaring saucers mounted with death rays is curiously untoppable entertainment. The aliens themselves are tin-covered, wizened weaklings. The climactic saucer battle staged by effects wizard Ray Harryhausen is unforgettable.