Evil invisible aliens resurrect the dead in order to take over the Earth. It's up to an intrepid handful of folks to figure out a way to stop them before it's too late. Competently directed by Edward L. Cahn, with a steady pace, a roaring melodramatic score by Paul Dunlap, a reasonable amount of spooky atmosphere, a pleasingly tight 67 minute running time, nifty and acceptable low-fi special effects, crisp black and white cinematography by Maury Gertsman, a nice sense of mounting dread, and cool moments of mass destruction, this modest, yet effective affair makes for an entertaining quickie romp. The sound acting from an able cast helps a lot, with especially praiseworthy work by John Agar as the rugged, no-nonsense Major Bruce Jay, Philip Tonge as the weary, disillusioned Dr. Adam Penner, Jim Hutton as the stalwart Dr. John Lamont, and Jean Byron as Penner's fetching daughter Phyllis. The ubiquitous John Carradine only appears briefly as the ill-fated Dr. Karol Noymann, but both his gaunt, cadaverous face and deep, gloomy voice are put to satisfyingly creepy use. Moreover, the central plot serves as a neat precursor to "Night of the Living Dead;" the shots of pasty-faced zombies trudging across the landscape are pretty eerie and impressive. A fun fright flick.

This is an amazingly crappy 1950s sci-fi film. While not the worst sci-fi film ever made, it does come pretty close! In fact, you know the film MUST really stink since the plot is a re-working of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE! Like PLAN 9 (once voted the worst movie ever made),this film is all about an evil plot by aliens to reanimate the dead and use them to attack and destroy the living. However, while PLAN 9 probably cost about $49.37 cents to produce, this one had much better production values (probably at least $100 was spent on acting and sets alone!).

So, aside from a re-hashed plot, what does this film have to offer? Well, like PLAN 9, it also is jam-packed full of stock footage that takes the place of original content. Some of this footage is totally inappropriate--such as the one showing a test B-17 flying into a hill. While it was supposed to be caused by the evil aliens, the footage is of some military test, as it impacts onto a giant painted 'X'! The acting was pretty bad, but not as bad as Ed Wood acting. John Carridine (who would appear in ANY film for a buck--thank goodness there were few porno flicks made back then) appears in a small role where he overacts--even though he is a zombie! And the "King of low-budget films", John Agar is the star. Frankly, he looks pretty old and tired--probably because he must have hated the movies he was forced to act in late in his brief career. As for the rest, they generally were sub-par, but only a few were so bad that you laughed as they read their lines.

So what's my favorite part of the film? Well, Agar is in a fight and if he loses, a crazy scientist will let a murderous creature out to kill them all. So what do the other two actors do while this fight occurs?! Yep,...just stand there and let it all happen! The bottom line is that this film is only for people who like to watch and laugh at bad films (I am one of them). Otherwise, don't waste your time--it's THAT horrible!

We don't see too much of John Carradine, but we sure hear a lot from him as the disembodied voice of the Invisible Invaders coming to a planet near you.

Carradine's a scientist who is killed in a lab explosion. His cadaver is then used by a group of aliens who are invisible to communicate with fellow scientist Phillip Tonge. Tonge's a Linus Pauling type, wanting the world to disarm before Armeggeddon. Of course one encounter with the invisible crowd and he's seen the error of his ways.

The aliens attack, opening the cemeteries and letting loose a gang of zombies on the world. Humans retreat to the underground and in one such bunker is Tonge, his daughter Jean Byron, fellow scientist Robert Hutton and John Agar to lend some military muscle to the project of finding the weapon that will destroy the invisible fiends.

Though it's not quite as campy as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Invisible Invaders is right up there. If I had to make a guess as to which player appeared in more garbage in his career, the answer would be John Carradine. His film career lasted over 50 years and a voice that gave life to Shakespeare was used for science fiction at it's worst.

I think Carradine just liked the paycheck and he also probably just loved hamming it up in parts like these. He made a lot of these awful films somewhat endurable.

Robert Hutton and John Agar were a couple of once promising players who had seen their best days and now were scratching out a living in science fiction. Jean Byron though would shortly see her career part as Patty Duke's mother in the Patty Duke Show.

But I'll bet she never saw sights in Brooklyn Heights like these invisible ones.