Nostalgia for Tales of 1950s Paranoia: Strange Invaders (1983) and Its Brethren
Primarily a producer, Michael Laughlin’s brief career as writer-director yielded a pair of tales about insular communities affected by unwanted forces.
Both the slasher film Strange Behavior / Dead Kids (1981) and Strange Invaders (1983) were co-written by future Gods and Monsters writer-director Bill Condon, and Invaders makes its needed debut on Blu via Twilight in a nice special edition that features one of John Addison’s best scores, if not one of the best evocations of a lush, romantic, ‘busy’ sci-fi score.
Behavior was eventually released on Blu via Severin Films, but I’ve ported the prior review for the Elite release from the KQEK.com archives, and supplemented the theme of alien invasion and paranoia with related archival reviews, including R.W. Goodwin’s goofy Alien Trespass (2009) that goes for Technicolor gloss in the desert; Larry Blamire’s ridiculous The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001), spoofing cheapjack alien invasion and low budget weirdness; and Joe Dante’s Matinee (1993), an affectionate poke at the gimmicky sci-fi / horror tales unleashed to fifties kids by the likes of William Castle.
Coming next is the first two of five (yes, five) podcast interviews this week: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children composers Michael Higham and Matthew Margeson.
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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