Galaxy Invader

Plot

When a glowing object which seems to be a meteor careens toward the Earth, a young student who sees it, is narrowly missed as it falls into the forest ahead of him. A couple of hours later, a young couple hears a noise in their basement and go down to see what it is. They are terrified and wrestled to the ground by a green monster known as the 'Galaxy Invader'. The alien is hunted by a gang of locals intent on cashing in on the creature.

Production

Galaxy Invader did not have the usual format that Don Dohler employed in many of his B straight-to-VHS films. With a short timeline and limited budget, more emphasis was placed on characters than sci-fi special effects. The green, web-footed alien monster in the film has a superficial resemblance to the titular entity from Creature from the Black Lagoon. The rubber suit and mask was also unfavourably compared to other film monsters.

The film's cast, however, was part of Don Dohler's stable of friends and includes Donald Leifert and George Stover both featured in Dohler's earlier films, The Alien Factor, Fiend and Nightbeast. Richard Ruxton, another of the film's stars, would go on to star in Dohler's next film, Blood Massacre.

Galaxy Invader was shot entirely in and around Baltimore, Maryland, Dohler's hometown. In the introduction, an orchestrated background synthesizer soundtrack was used. Footage from this film was used without permission in the introductory and ending credits for the Film Ventures release of the Spanish film Pod People in 1990, which in turn was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 the following year.

Reception

In a 2011 article in The New York Times dealing with 1980s B films, "This pre-video-age late-night cable TV favorite was created (almost singlehandedly) by a fanzine editor who managed to shape his micro-budget into a special effects extravaganza. The late Don Dohler would go on to direct many straight-to-VHS films of the ’80s, including 'Galaxy Invader' and 'Blood Massacre'."

In the summer of 2011, the RiffTrax crew, consisting of MST3K alumni Michael J Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy took on Galaxy Invader.

In 2013, RedLetterMedia called Galaxy Invader "one of our favorite bad movies," praising the film's characters and comparing it favorably to Dohler's earlier film Nightbeast.