PROJECT TERROR: INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959)

2 months ago
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I am lucky enough to have grown up in San Antonio, TX from the 1960s thru the 1980s. I had fun trying to stay up late on Friday Nights to catch the broadcast of our local TV station, KENS 5 TV which had a little horror show called Project Terror. They would show old horror movies. One of the most memorable shows from my childhood was Invisible Invaders from 1959.
Invisible Invaders is a 1959 American science fiction film starring John Agar, Jean Byron, John Carradine and Philip Tonge. It was produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Samuel Newman.
Invisible Invaders was released to US theaters on May 15, 1959. It was copyrighted on 8 May that year, a week before the film opened. Outside the US, it opened in Finland on August 12, 1960, and in Sweden on September 22, 1960. It was also exhibited in theaters in Brazil, Chile, Spain and the Soviet Union. In the UK, it received an "A" certificate from the British Board of Film Censors on June 15, 1959, which allowed it to be shown to "children accompanied by anyone over 16".
To drum up domestic interest in the film, Variety said in its "Exploitips" listing that "the attention-getting title is the chief selling point - a ballyhoo man dressed in a rented space suit...will get notice from neighborhood youngsters". Whether this was actually done, or if it convinced children to attend the movie, is unknown.
The movie had only a short run but became a minor cult film on television. Jacobs says it had "unprecedented success in 1962 prime-time TV showings, after low ratings as a late night movie". For example, Invisible Invaders was shown on Chicago's WFLD in 1971 as part of its well-known "Science Fiction Theater" program.

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