source: The Day Mars Invaded Earth

Trailer—The Day Mars Invaded Earth

The Day Mars Invaded Earth

A scientist in charge of America's space program takes a vacation with his wife and two kids, only to find they are being haunted by mysterious doppelgangers of themselves. Good sci-fi story of the Body Snatchers variety. I'm not sure why this one is rated so low on IMDb. My first guess was that Mystery Science Theater was to blame but apparently not this time. The direction is static and the movie has a sort of made-for-TV quality about it, but I thought it was enjoyable. It kept my interest throughout and, despite the lack of action or special effects, I was never bored. There is also a decent amount of atmosphere and suspense. The movie makes great use of its location shooting at the famous Greystone Mansion. If you like old-school sci-fi movies, even ones filmed on a low budget, then you will probably like this one.

This film was a pleasant surprise and reminded me of "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" and "The Shining" both in plot content and, more particularly, the methods used to build atmosphere and suspense. The film struggles to overcome its budgetary constraints and suffers from some rather wooden performances from the limited cast. It is unfortunate that when dealing with such a small cast a below par performance is a great deal more obvious than it would be in most films. A case of not enough flowers to hide the weeds. I was surprised to see comments from another viewer who attributed this film to the UK, as far as I can see there are no links to the UK. The writer was Canadian and the cast, director, studio and locations all American. It's certainly worth 70 minutes of your time to give this production a chance, if nothing else it is a refreshing change from the hideously unconvincing "rubber monster" flicks that were so prevalent in this genre.

Although it has now achieved something of a cult following, this "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" look-alike was completely ignored on its first release. Not even "Variety" bothered to review the movie because the editor felt its prospects were so limited, that no theaters would screen the film even if the exchange made them a gift of a free copy. And some exchanges had the further disadvantage of a cut-down copy which removed some essential background and motivation. I rated this version as less than mediocre. The full version, however, is quite entertaining and whilst the movie doesn't deserve the unstintingly overboard admiration of Maury Dexter's admirers, it's still well worth a look in its original CinemaScope format. Locations are atmospherically utilized, particularly the scenes in Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.