With Richard Stanley’s hallucinogenic sci-fi horror Color Out Of Space available on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download now, what better time to look back at some alien invasion classics to revisit alongside!
COLOR OUT OF SPACE
Nearly thirty years since Hardware – which introduced him to the world as a director to watch – Maverick director Richard Stanley returned to the screen earlier this year with his adaptation of H.P Lovecraft’s iconic novel Color Out of Space.
With an all-star cast including Nicholas Cage and Joely Richardson, the film tells the story of the Gardner family, whose idyllic life on a rural Vermont farm is turned upside down following the crash of a meteorite in their front garden. The meteorite releases an extra-terrestrial pathogen of nightmarish colour that begins to wreak havoc, infecting local animals and the Gardners themselves. With the help of some neighbours, the family attempts to battle the nebulous entity that they can barely begin to understand.
THE THING
John Carpenter’s cult classic The Thing tells the story of a group of American researchers living in remote Antarctica who come across the ‘Thing,’ a malevolent extra-terrestrial being that imitates other life forms. After witnessing the force shapeshift and take over the research station’s dogs, the team grow increasingly paranoid that the Thing could be living inside any number of their colleagues, and eventually take over all life on earth. Though The Thing wasn’t particularly well received upon first release, with one review going as far as to refer to it as “instant junk,” it’s now acknowledged as an influential classic of the genre.
PREDATOR
With Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role as the leader of an elite paramilitary team on a mission to save hostages in Central America, you’d be forgiven for assuming Predator could be a typical Arnie action vehicle. But Predator veers into extra-terrestrial territory when the team encounter the deadly Predator, a technically advanced alien creature stalking and hunting the team on their mission. The film’s huge success has spawned a franchise of comic books, video games, toys and films, including three direct sequels and a crossover series of films with the Alien franchise.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
“Welcome to Earth” is the immortal line uttered by Will Smith’s Capt. Steven Hiller shortly after punching an alien in the face in Roland Emmerich’s iconic alien invasion film Independence Day. Action ensues as humankind battles against these mysterious extra-terrestrial creatures, who come in anything but peace to attack major cities around the globe. On July 4, Earth’s survivors set out towards Area 51, the US government’s secretive testing ground, and devise a plan to conquer them once and for all, lending a whole new meaning to July 4th as Independence Day.
MARS ATTACKS!
Tim Burton’s 1996 film lovingly parodies schlocky sci-fi classics as it tells the story of a close encounter when Martian spacecraft surround the world’s major cities. Though U.S. President James Dale (played by Jack Nicholson) is assured by science professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan) that the Martians come in peace, things take a turn when the giant-brained aliens totally annihilate the US congress. As the aliens continue their murderous rampage across the globe, it falls to a small group of survivors to work out an unlikely and particularly tuneful way of keeping them at bay!
COLOR OUT OF SPACE is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, and on VOD 13th April.
