STARSHIP INVASIONS (1977)

This is 'that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back', as Dr. Thompson put it. One of the last science-fiction films to be released before Star Wars changed the world. It is a low-budget Canadian production meant to cash in on UFO and abduction lore as it read in the mid-70's.                  
                              
Coming before Whitley Streiber's Communion, absent is the lexicon established by that account. No anal probes, no black triangles, the tropes utilized here are of the 'Barney and Betty Hill' brand. Cheap though the production may be, there is an admirable economy to its sci-fi imagery. 

 There is an ambition present on screen in its scope both visually and story-wise. These guys did some homework and just threw it all in their movie hanging it all on the most preposterous plot. The look is cheap, but every dollar is on the screen. The ideas are there, but these guys lack the taste and talent to execute them cinematically. 

It all plays like a strange mix of slap-dash TV from Britain and the States. Clearly Canadian. It possesses a strange magic that grabbed me as a child seeing it on CBS' Saturday morning Science Fiction Theatre. It terrified me. I missed the title and it remained a mystery until I saw a trailer for it at the Alamo Drafthouse. I found it on VHS at I Luv Video. Needless to say it did not disappoint. It's cast boasts both Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee...