Rumour hath it that there may be two versions of this preposterous fluffy nonsense - if so, then I can only hope the Swedish version came with meatballs. The American version used them as props!
{NOTE: These comments and score pertain to the 1959 Swedish film 'Rymdinvasion i Lappland' (aka 'Space Invasion of Lapland') NOT the 1962 U.S.
Mention Swedish cinema and the first thing that usually comes to most peoples' minds is the work of Ingmar Bergman films full of excellent acting, obscure symbolism and profound psychological insights. Well, "Invasion of the Animal People" is proof that not every Swedish film- maker was up to the standards of Bergman.
I gave this motion picture a 5 out of 10 mainly for the female lead - Barbara Wilson is not the greatest actress but she certainly is easy on the eyes - and the creature effects, especially the scenes with scale model structures and tents, which put me in mind of Dawson Palmer in the palm tree bark-covered union suit as the cyclops for "Lost In Space" (the pilot and the first season episode "There Were Giants In The Earth"). *Spoiler alert* The story had potential: was the creature an experimental animal, a pet being transported in a flight gone wrong, or a prisoner of the mysterious pointed-head aliens?
Known internationally as Terror In the Midnight Sun and in its native Sweden as Space Invasion of Lapland, this movie was brought to the U.S.
Terror in The Midnight Sun (1959), the title I prefer to use, can be summed up thus:For some, a Viking good time.
Looking like a bad combination of a disfigured warthog and a Teletubby or giant Muppet, the creature here is one of the dumbest looking monsters in cinema history. It is like a shag carpet that needed a mower two tone it down, and does nothing but grunt and walk slowly through the snowy tundra stocking a Swedish skiing beauty who is on a scientific exposition and ends up being able to walk and run even though she's just broken her leg after hitting a tree while skiing.
There should be 2 entries for Invasion of the Animal People and Terror in the Midnight Sun because they are 2 almost completely different movies. They did it for other Jerry Warren mixes, why not this one too?
I recently obtained a copy (part of the excellent Sci-Fi Gold series) of Invasion Of The Animal People off E-Bay and found it OK if a little slow moving in parts.A spacecraft crashes in a remote area of Sweden and the Army and a geologist are sent to investigate this.
