Spaced Invaders

Studio: Kino Lorber Studio Classics

Feb 02, 2021 Web Exclusive By Matthew Roe

I must be completely honest and admit that when approaching this particular bit of 1990s genre schlock homaging American paranoia-driven science fiction of previous generations, I am completely biased. While most children I knew growing up drifted to films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Short Circuit (and that one kid who liked Mac and Me), I found myself absolutely loving this film from start to finish. My grandparents had a copy on VHS that they had randomly picked up for us at a pawn shop, and it became my favorite film to watch when over their house until I finally took ownership of the tape myself. Though certainly not boasting the reputations of the other aforementioned films, Spaced Invaders remains a delightful and incredibly off-beat film that I still enjoy decades later.

The story begins with the Martian army called the Imperial Atomic Space Navy, who are at war with the Arcturans (a faceless alien race who are never seen in the movie). In an attempt to get the upper hand on their enemies, the Martians deploy Enforcer Drones to keep the soldiers in premier shape, and install one in every spacecraft. They are sociopathically autocratic, something akin to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) meeting the Allied Mastercomputer from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream—but in a fun way. While the battle rages, the crew of a small patrol ship intercepts a distress signal from the fleet, but it becomes gurgled somehow with a random radio station from Earth, rebroadcasting Orson Welles’ 1938 The War of the Worlds dramatization. The crew mistake the recording for a real Martian invasion and head off to join in on the merriment. Simultaneously we’ve got a small town sheriff (Douglas Barr) and his outsider daughter (Ariana Richards) trying to adjust to their new lives in Big Bean, Illinois, the most exciting feature of which is their new highway off-ramp and that’s about it. When these two worlds collide, wacky shenaniganry ensues.

When the film was released in 1990, film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “One of the purposes of growing up and getting an education is to learn why movies like Spaced Invaders are a waste of time,” with numerous critics (of then and now) agreeing along the same lines. And while we are predisposed to be softer towards movies we grew up with, age will always change our appreciation for art and entertainment, and numerous audience reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes seem to also reflect a depreciation of enjoyment for this sci-fi comedy. Having said that, this movie is still just as funny, charming, and wonderfully stupid as it has ever been. That’s the point, and I love it. Spaced Invaders gratuitously steals tropes and plot mechanics from its influences with reckless abandon, and while many of its jokes ultimately rely on slapstick, it also is fairly obvious to see how much writer/director Patrick Read Johnson adores and knows the genre. Though, by Johnson’s own admission, the movie serves as a quasi-reimagining of The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), but only “with little green men.”

While performing well enough at the box office to warrant home releases on VHS and DVD in the ‘90s and 2000s, Kino Lorber is the first to believe this obscure indie film darling deserves a re-release for Blu-ray, and it is chock-full of terrific supplemental features. The disc includes a massive audio commentary with Johnson, co-writer Scott Lawrence Alexander, co-editor Seth Gaven, and second unit director Scott Andrew Ressler, where the whole conversation feels like a homey reunion mixer. Newly recorded interviews with Johnson, Barr, Richards, actor Kevin Thompson, visual effects supervisor John Knoll, and alien special effects supervisor and creator John Criswell buttress the film with a swath of humbling anecdotes and wild recollections. Newly commissioned box art by Jacob Phillips is gloriously rendered on a reversible case jacket, with the opposing side sporting the original release poster design. All in all, a very expansive and crisp presentation that is well worth the asking price.

Spaced Invaders did not play a major role in shaping the DIY independent movement of the 1990s, though it absolutely should have. The drive and ingenuity for a movie of this scope operating on such restrictive resources and time is nothing short of inspiring, and regardless of our individual opinions of the film, we should marvel at the fact that it exists at all. Its combinations of weird and (sometimes) raunchy humor, with special effects that, while certainly dated today, were thoroughly impressive for an indie film to pull off at the time. I am thoroughly happy that this film still gets love from audiences and filmmakers, even if it is from the most niche of places.

(www.kinolorber.com/product/spaced-invaders-special-edition-blu-ray)