Mention Swedish cinema and the first thing that usually comes to most peoples' minds is the work of Ingmar Bergman; films full of excellent acting, obscure symbolism and profound psychological insights. Well, "Invasion of the Animal People" is proof that not every Swedish film- maker was up to the standards of Bergman. In fact, this one isn't even up to the standards of Edward D. Wood Jr. A lot of people consider Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space" to be the worst movie ever made, but clearly those people have never seen "Invasion of the Animal People".
The movie begins with an over-long and obviously spliced-in monologue delivered by John Carradine, a monologue that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. That is followed by another long and also obviously added- on sequence filmed in the United States, that seems to have no relation to the remainder of the movie.
The rest of the movie involves a space ship that lands in Lapland, in Northern Sweden. This film probably enjoys the rare distinction of being the only science-fiction movie ever produced that features the people known as Laps (also referred to as "Sami"). The UFO is duly investigated by a team of scientists accompanies by a female Olympic figure skater, niece of one of the scientists who, apparently, just happened to be doing her training in Lapland.
The aliens resemble the character of "Death" from Ingmar Bergman's film, "The Seventh Seal". Have they landed in Sweden in order to play chess with Max von Sydow? Since no other reason for their presence is ever presented, I suppose that is as good an explanation as any. The aliens are also accompanied by a 30-foot-tall troll (I guess that's what they would call it in Scandinavia). How they ever managed to fit it inside their small spacecraft, and why they should have wished to being it with them in the first place, are questions that are never addressed.
Some of the other reviewers have pointed out that there exists a Swedish-language version of this movie that makes more sense. Admittedly, I have not seen that Swedish version. However, "more" is a relative term, because the version of this movie that I did see makes virtually no sense whatsoever. Nevertheless, connoisseurs of really bad 1950s science-fiction movies will definitely want to add this one to their list.
The movie begins with an over-long and obviously spliced-in monologue delivered by John Carradine, a monologue that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. That is followed by another long and also obviously added- on sequence filmed in the United States, that seems to have no relation to the remainder of the movie.
The rest of the movie involves a space ship that lands in Lapland, in Northern Sweden. This film probably enjoys the rare distinction of being the only science-fiction movie ever produced that features the people known as Laps (also referred to as "Sami"). The UFO is duly investigated by a team of scientists accompanies by a female Olympic figure skater, niece of one of the scientists who, apparently, just happened to be doing her training in Lapland.
The aliens resemble the character of "Death" from Ingmar Bergman's film, "The Seventh Seal". Have they landed in Sweden in order to play chess with Max von Sydow? Since no other reason for their presence is ever presented, I suppose that is as good an explanation as any. The aliens are also accompanied by a 30-foot-tall troll (I guess that's what they would call it in Scandinavia). How they ever managed to fit it inside their small spacecraft, and why they should have wished to being it with them in the first place, are questions that are never addressed.
Some of the other reviewers have pointed out that there exists a Swedish-language version of this movie that makes more sense. Admittedly, I have not seen that Swedish version. However, "more" is a relative term, because the version of this movie that I did see makes virtually no sense whatsoever. Nevertheless, connoisseurs of really bad 1950s science-fiction movies will definitely want to add this one to their list.