[HorrorScience] Target Earth – Invaders from Other Worlds (1954)

We have reached the 50th film ofHorrorScience, the section dedicated to horror, fantasy and science fiction films, which also happens to be the oldest on ComboGamer.

The film I have chosen to celebrate 50 weeks of Horrorscience is Target Earth (Known in Spanish as Target the Earth and also how Invaders from Other Worlds) one of the typical science fiction films of the 50s that, in an indirect way, made reference to the Second World War and the Cold War.

Fortunately this movie offers us these references in a totally original way, since the military remains in the background since the story focuses on normal, ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in a totally out of the ordinary situation.

A young girl named Nora King wakes up in her bed next to a practically empty bottle of pills, her suicide attempt has gone wrong and now she has to live again the life she tried to escape from. The girl raises the blinds to let in the daylight, gets dressed and He leaves the building to find a completely deserted city., since there doesn't seem to be anyone around and all the shops are closed.

After walking through the streets of the empty city she ends up finding someone, a dead woman lying on the ground, right after she realizes that there is a man behind her and Nora does the only thing that seems sensible to her, running. The man chases her and after cornering her explains that he has nothing to do with the dead woman, that she has been walking around the city all day looking for someone, since since she woke up that morning it seemed that everyone had disappeared.

Nora and her companion (Frank Brooks) begin to find an answer to the strange situation, so the first thing they do is try to look for radios to communicate or find out what has happened, without much success.

During their search they will find a couple formed by Jim Wilson and Vicki Harris, who are getting drunk in one of the luxury restaurants in the abandoned city. Apparently Jim and Vicki have decided to enjoy life, now that everything is within their reach, without worrying about what has happened (or could happen) in the city.

After seriously considering what to do in their situation, the group decides to move towards the city center to look for answers (and at the same time enjoy the luxury hotels and venues) when they find an abandoned vehicle with the driver dead. It will not be long until a fearful companion joins the group, who will be prey to hysteria and will die at the hands of what made them evacuate the city, a robotic-looking enemy that doesn't look like it belongs on this planet.

The situation has now changed and the four survivors hide in a hotel, where they will rest until the next morning, or so they thought, because right in the middle of the night another man will appear in the hotel, with different plans than those the protagonists had.

What will happen to Nora, Frank, Jim and Vicky?

Target Earth is a quite special film despite dealing with very common themes in science fiction films. Its originality is based on the fact that The film takes place from the point of view of normal people who do not know what is happening in the city and from that unenviable situation they have to decide what to do, how and when.

The characters are human enough to not seem like characters from a movie, and at the same time they are “movie-like” enough to act when the situation requires it and not fall into the victimhood of staying in a corner crying out of fear (a situation that, despite being realistic, would not contribute anything to the film).

This great success of focusing the story on the citizens earns points for a film that, due to the low budget it had, loses a lot when it comes to showing the invaders who attack the city, which They're so ridiculous that they can't be taken seriously and they totally take you out of the movie every time they appear. (something similar to what happened with the giant bird of The Giant Claw).

It is a shame that the budget affected those scenes so much, that they do not even reach 10 minutes of the total footage, but they manage to spoil the realistic aura that is maintained in most of the film. Despite this, I think it is a very enjoyable and quite original film, so I recommend it without a doubt.

If, for some reason, the concept catches your attention but you don't think you will like the film, I recommend reading the original story on which it was based (Relentless City) both stories are almost the same, although the story includes situations that were softened or eliminated in the film.

Some curiosities:

• The director of the film has expressed on more than one occasion his regret for not having been able to have a larger budget and thus obtain better special effects.
• Although the film talks about an invading army of hundreds of robots, the budget meant that they could only have one, which is why we never see more at a time throughout the entire film.
• This film is based on the short story Deadly City (Relentless City) by Paul W. Fairman.
• Although the film takes place in Chicago, it was filmed in Los Angeles, and to achieve the empty street scenes, they had to shoot the scenes first thing in the morning.