Invasion of the Animal People (1962)

I saw the original 1958 Swedish version of this icebound sci-fi movie called TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN as opposed to INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE, the version which Jerry Warren distributed on TV after cutting out extraneous material and adding John Carradine as narrator. My advice is for viewers to always watch the original versions of such films wherever possible as the repackaged versions are invariably disappointing.TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN is a low budget and often laughable film in which very little happens during the slow-moving narrative. A cheesy meteorite crash-lands in the Arctic circle at the movie's outset and a plane-load of investigators are sent to investigate. There's also a figure skater thrown into the mix and lots of wooden dialogue from the English-dubbed actors. Eventually, and not until around the hour mark, a giant monster breaks loose and goes on a rampage. The creature looks like King Kong with a pig's snout and is completely ludicrous. The ending reminded me of THE WICKER MAN although with worse effects. Cult movie lovers will lap it up.

One thing to know about this movie is that it was made in two different versions. One Swedish and one American. Most of the ones who have commented this film has obviously seen the American edition that was edited and added with extra scenes.From what I've read here and heard from others, the Swedish version is much better, still a really bad movie though, and it's a shame that only the American version has made it to the video market.From what I know the Swedish version only exists in one, maybe two, 35mm copies in Sweden and they are frozen for conservation.I've seen it a couple of times and I cant help laughing. We used to show it here in Kiruna every year at our film festival, Arctic Light Film Festival, but had to stop because it was to expensive to thaw the film.

You know it's a bad flick if it has Jerry Warren writing and John Carradine (The Unearthly, Night Train to Mundo Fine) narrating. (True, Carradine was also in Peggy Sue Got Married and The Secret of NIMH, but this was way before that.) Bad special effects crush this movie's hope of ever being decent. This one is one that MST3K didn't do, but should have.Nice to see Sampo isn't the only bad Swedish movie.

I have seen a lot of obscure films and am pretty sure that this one must have had the lowest budget in making it. There is a man-like creature that is HUGE- he probably stands 40-60 feet tall. Anyway the Eskimo villagers throw fire torches at it.As for the plot- there may not even be one, other than these people go out into the frozen tundra to look for a cheapie spaceship and then end up skiing half the countryside. I do however, appreciate this show's obscurity- there is , as far as I've ever seen, nothing quite like it- It makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like "Gone With The Wind".