Really weird. The film is a parody of science fiction of the 50s.
In the story: The wife of the protagonist Charlie, who teaches entomology at Columbia University, unexpectedly and quickly leaves for the funeral of his mother in the village of Canterville, where he disappears without a trace. A few days later, the worried husband, leaving his daughter with his grandmother, goes in search of his wife. In Canterville, no one has heard of Alma Newman, but the adventures do not end there - a worried Charlie begins to be haunted by a series of strange and frightening events, forcing him to rush home. After him, a whole delegation of humanoids disguised as villagers arrives from the village, and Charlie, meanwhile, meets a nice journalist of a local newspaper, which also falls into the focus of alien interests. In search of the truth, the characters go to a mental hospital, where they meet with a witness who made a unique photo, he tells them a story that will shed light on the events taking place. And now they are waiting for a decisive battle in the fight for their freedom.
The action of the film claims to be large-scale (a large number of involved persons, distant crossings; there is a conspiracy in the highest circles), but a small handful of diverse villagers-aliens looks very modest and harmless even for the American hinterland, where this story takes place, not to mention on a wider scale.
The “invaders” are really “strange”, in some places logic disappears in their actions, and sometimes too many unnecessary movements are taken, while with their skills everything could be done faster and easier. Partly because, despite their unique abilities and development, Laughlin’s alien guests are clearly dumb (the one with Charlie’s door-breaking, for example), though capable of some simple tricks (the one with the makeup distributor). During the 25 years spent among earthlings, the aliens mastered primitive skills of communication and behavior in everyday life, but remained emotionless and robotic creatures, which gives them a more “threatening” appearance.
Now for entertainment. The masters, meeting a very modest budget, created a good moving masks - the appearance of aliens, and the classic shots of bluish balls flying out of the windows of a rural church, wherever they were inserted afterwards, so fans of old fiction have something to look at.
In general, the film is not bad, full of action, with high-quality musical design. The acting is quite tolerable for such a parody movie, although it could be better.
6 out of 10