Starship Invasions

Starship Invasions
Directed by Ed Hunt
Produced by Ed Hunt
Written by Ed Hunt
Starring
Music by Gil Melle
Cinematography Mark Irwin
Edited by Ruth Hope & Millie Moore
Production
company
Hal Roach Studios
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • 14 October 1977 (1977-10-14) (U.S.)
  • 25 November 1977 (1977-11-25) (Toronto)[1]
Running time
 89 minutes
Country Canada
Language English
Budget $1 million[2]

Starship Invasions is a 1977 Canadian science fiction film directed, produced, and written by Ed Hunt[3] and filmed in Toronto, Ontario. It was re-released in the United Kingdom as Project Genocide.

Synopsis

The plot concerns the black-clad Legion of the Winged Serpent, a rogue group of human-like telepathic aliens led by Captain Rameses (Christopher Lee). The Legion's home planet Alpha in the Orion constellation is about to be destroyed in the imminent supernova of its star, and Rameses is leading a small force of flying saucers[lower-alpha 1] to Earth to examine its suitability for their race. Performing several alien abductions, they discover they are descendants of transplanted humans, and thus the Earth is perfect for them. They plan to make way for themselves after killing everyone through the use of a device whose signals prompt people to commit suicide.

Opposing any such plan is the Intergalactic League of Races, a highly advanced group of bald, big-headed aliens from Zeta Reticuli. The League operates an observation base on Earth in the form of a pyramid hidden beneath the ocean. Rameses lands at the base pretending to be a friendly researcher, and the League reminds him that under the Galactic Treaty he is to have no contact with humans. While taking a tour of the base he is disturbed to see a television broadcast featuring human UFO expert and astronomer Professor Allan Duncan (Robert Vaughn) discussing Rameses' abductions. He laughs it off and indulges in the local entertainment.

Rameses' crew sabotages one of the League's three saucers, which is later shot down when approaching a US Army base. The League sends ships to investigate, and Rameses and his crew kill everyone left in the base. One of the League saucers manages to return to the base but its crew is killed in a shootout. Rameses' ship fights the remaining League ship and is destroyed. Rameses then calls in his fleet, hiding behind the Moon, to hunt down the surviving League ship. Rameses also deploys the "extermination device," an orbiting, global-scale version of the suicide device. The US armed forces discover it, but are powerless to prevent the ensuing suicide epidemic.

The surviving League ship has suffered minor computer damage, and contacts Duncan for assistance. He enlists the help of his friend Malcolm (Henry Ramer), a computer expert, who repairs the ship using parts picked up in downtown Toronto. They are discovered shortly after taking off and are intercepted by one of Rameses' ships, but they shoot it down and it crashes into First Canadian Place. Duncan and Malcolm's "abduction" makes the front page of the Toronto Star. After repairs and refuelling they leave Earth in an attempt to enlist the help of other League ships. Malcolm's improvised repairs burn out shortly past the Moon, so Duncan's knowledge of the masses of the planets is put to use by Malcolm's pocket calculator to plot their course to the outer solar system.

The ship successfully reaches a League squadron, and they set out to attack the Legion. Rameses uses the computer in the League base to calculate superior strategies and begins to destroy the League ships. One of the robots in the base[lower-alpha 2] is only damaged, not destroyed, and re-takes command. He causes the extermination unit to destroy itself, and then directs Rameses' ships to collide with each other. His fleet destroyed, the super-weapon eliminated, and his sun having gone supernova in the meantime, Rameses crashes his ship into the Moon.

During the action the extermination unit had passed over Toronto, causing Duncan's wife (Helen Shaver) to slash her wrists. The League races to Duncan's home and easily revives her.

Cast

  • Robert Vaughn as Professor Allan Duncan
  • Christopher Lee as Captain Rameses
  • Daniel Pilon as Anaxi
  • Tiiu Leek as Phi
  • Helen Shaver as Betty Duncan
  • Henry Ramer as Malcolm
  • Victoria Johnson as Gazeth
  • Doreen Lipson as Dorothy
  • Kate Parr as Diane Duncan
  • Sherri Ross as Sagnac
  • Linda Rennhofer as Joan
  • Richard Fitzpatrick as Joe
  • Ted Turner as Zhender
  • Sean McCann as Carl
  • Bob Warner as an Air Force General
  • Kurt Schiegl as Rudi

Production and release

The film had to be retitled twice. It originally was titled War of the Aliens, which closely resembled the 1977 blockbuster Star Wars. The title was changed to Alien Encounter, which resembled the 1977 blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[4] Hal Roach Studios producers Earl A. Glick and Norman Glick bankrolled the production with $1 million.[2] Many elements of the film, including the design of the robots and the winged serpent emblem the black-clad villains wear, are taken from UFO accounts.[5]

Starship Invasions was released in VHS format by Warner Home Video.[6] It was also released in 1987 on video in the United Kingdom by Krypton Force under the title Project Genocide.[7]

Its French-language title was L'invasion des soucoupes volantes.[8]

Critical reception

From contemporary reviews, Globe and Mail reviewer Robert Martin panned Starship Invasions, likening the film to "those dubbed Japanese movies usually seen on Saturday afternoon television".[4] John Duvoli of The Evening News called it a "poor imitation" of previous science fiction films.[9] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film is too low budget and derivative to even appeal to science fiction fans.[10] Variety described the film as a "cinematic curio", stating that it was a "1970s replica of those hoaky old Republic sci-fi pix of the 1940s, apparently made in complete sincerity by young director Ed Hunt with none of the phony campiness that often haunts such recreations."[11][12]

It remains Hunt's most sought-after film.[13]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Apparently modeled on Paul Trent's photos.
  2. ↑ Patterned on the aliens from the Pascagoula Abduction.

Citations

  1. ↑ The Globe and Mail, as per movie listings around this date.
  2. 1 2 Martin, Robert (10 December 1977). "No more cheap sex films, Hunt is big budget now". The Globe and Mail. Toronto: The Woodbridge Company. p. 34.
  3. ↑ "Starship Invasions". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 Martin, Robert (30 November 1977). "Alien futures market active". The Globe and Mail. Toronto: The Woodbridge Company. p. F9.
  5. ↑ Huyghe 1996, pp. 20–21 & 60–61.
  6. ↑ "Starship Invasions". Warner Home Video. Burbank, California: Warner Bros. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "Project Genocide". British Board of Film Classification. London. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "L'invasion des soucoupes volantes (Starship Invasions)". Cinemaffiche. Avignon, France. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  9. ↑ Duvoli 1978, p. 8D.
  10. ↑ Maslin, Janet (3 February 1978). "Starship Invasions (1979)". The New York Times. New York City: The New York Times Company. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  11. ↑ Willis 1985, p. 321: "Review is of 89 minute version viewed in Hollywood on October 19, 1977"
  12. ↑ Willis 1985, p. 322: "Review is of 89 minute version viewed in Hollywood on October 19, 1977"
  13. ↑ "Starship Invasions", Canuxploitation!

Sources

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