A stunning, nightmarish vision that still packs a wallop after all these years. Don Siegel’s simple, elegant direction compliments the unnatural and terrifying calm with which these aliens quietly begin their conquest of Earth.
Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter make for a charming lead duo whom we want and need to follow as they navigate a once peaceful town that’s now an unknown landscape of terror where no one can be trusted and sleep is equal to death.
Despite a studio-mandated wraparound story (a device I’m loathe to endorse), it doesn’t dampen the unnerving spell the film weaves throughout. Besides moments involving the hatching of pods, the creepiest scene may be the most straightforward.
Uncertain how many have been ‘infected,’ McCarthy and Wynter watch in horror as the entire town square pauses and congregates to plan the next phase of the invasion.
The film contains two flaws: one minor and one nearly fatal. Both were obviously made in service of moving the plot along and possibly for budgetary reasons (the budget was slashed prior to the shoot).
1) The aliens leave the room to watch as McCarthy and Wynter’s pods hatch, giving the duo ample time to formulate an escape plan. It’s just a baffling and dunderheaded move from sophisticated alien life forms.
2) Dana Wynter’s transformation. We’re aware that once a victim goes to sleep, the pod will hatch a new version and the original will be destroyed. It’s clear that the pods are necessary, yet when Wynter falls asleep in a cave, she changes and yet there were no pods anywhere near her. It simply does not add up that she’s now a pod person if everyone else had to emerge from a giant seed pod. It’s a crucial flaw that causes Invasion to just barely miss the mark of perfection.
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