by Jason Daniel Baker

Created on: March 19, 2009

Starship Invasion (1977) Starring Helen Shaver, Christopher Lee, Daniel Pilon, Sean McCann, Jonathan Welsh, Shirley Solomon, Tiiu Leek, Henry Ramer, Victoria Johnson, Kate Parr, Sherri Ross, Linda Rennhofer, Richard Fitzpatrick, Ted Turner, Bob Warner, Alan Rosenthal, Jack Anthony, Al Bernardo, Holly Dale, Donald Young.

Directed by Ed Hunt.

Running Time: 89 minutes.

Rating: R (Brutal Horror Violence, Gore, Brief Nudity, Coarse Language)

"Come inside. You will not be harmed"

AKA Project Genocide

Telepathic alien dudes form the planet Alpha wearing goofy black outfits with a flying serpent logo land on Earth. They kidnap a homely farmer for their female crewmember to fornicate with as an examination. They kidnap other Earthlings for examination then launch a virus which causes them to commit suicide. Alien Captain Rameses (Lee) tells them the sun on planet Alpha is about to explode so they must clear the Earth and colonise it.

Rameses also grimly tells the other bad aliens under his command that Earthlings started the race of beings on Alpha and that they will thus be killing off their parent race. The good aliens representing a kind of an intergalactic United Nations try to stop the bad aliens. An alternate title for this film is Project Genocide. But is it genocide when you kill off your own race?

Usually films like this also feature stock characters in possession of an impressive title like professor or doctor wherein they command respect or authority. They can offer explanations for what is happening. They can also say what is happening defies science and that tends to work too. Here we are given Professor Allan Duncan. The good aliens go to Duncan because they need his help to stop the bad aliens.

This howler of 1970s sci-fi kitsch is filled with special effects of the kind one might see on an episode of Lost in Space. If you have seen that show you know how bad the special effects were. The ships look like the kind of covered metal containers that they serve food on airplanes with. There is also that trademark of sci-fi - the skintight outfit made of spandex or polyester. Perfect attire for invading Earth or augmenting the rhythm section of Parliament Funkadelic.

What you don't have here is overuse of theremin on the soundtrack which, I guess is a good thing except for the fact that in its place is some kind of jazz-rock-disco fusion. Couple that with the weird underwater pyramid headquarters of the good aliens interiors of which look like the kind you might see

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