TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN / INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE
© 2001 Something Weird Video / Image Entertainment

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TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN / INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE

TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN was made in English as RYMDINVASION I LAPPLAND ("Space Invasion of Lapland") by producers Bertil Jernberg and Gustaf Unger, hoping to offer something different at a time when Sweden was mainly known for producing sex films, with an eye toward foreign distribution. They hired American Arthur C. Pierce (THE COSMIC MAN) to write their story of aliens who land in the remote northern tundra of Sweden, and Virgil Vogel (THE MOLE PEOPLE) to direct. For a European production, it had a decent budget and production values far better than most American sci-fi films of the time.

Much like WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE BLOB, it begins with an apparent meteor crash. A team of scientists led by Dr. Erik Engstrom (Stan Gester) is sent to investigate. Visitor Dr. Fred Wilson (Robert Burton of TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN) joins the party. By luck, Wilson's niece Diane (Barbara Wilson of THE FLESH EATERS and BLOOD OF DRACULA) happens to be in the area they're exploring, on tour as an Olympic skating champ. After about a half hour of romantic nonsense between the two young leads, they arrive in Lapland to find that the "meteor" is actually a spaceship full of big-domed space aliens. What's more, they've brought a large hairy pet with them - a 30-foot giant biped that looks to be a relative of the Wookie family.

TERROR actually turns out to be a pretty good show. There's plenty of action, good f/x, a unique twist on the alien visitor plot, and the Nordic locations have an eerie, otherworldly look. Wilson has never looked sexier than she does here; she's helped a bit by doubles, of course, for her scenes involving skating, skiing, and a surprising nude scene.

As Frank Henenlotter's package essay and the producer Jernberg's commentrak tells us, Unger grabbed a print and headed for the USA, telling his partner that he'd sell it to Paramount. As it turns out, instead he sold it cheap to Jerry Warren (TEENAGE ZOMBIES) and fled with the cash.

What Warren did with the picture is, on examination, just plain crazy. First he edited down the 70-minute feature to tighten the pace, sacrificing much necessary exposition and character development. It seems that Warren hated dialogue - except for his own. Probably realizing he now had a picture far too short, he hired Wilson for a few insert shots of her character being buzzed by UFOs early in the picture, after which doctors drone on endlessly in drab sets about her case, including a scene with Warren regular Katherine Victor as Wilson's mother.

Since the film still needed to be longer for television sale, Warren hired John Carradine to spout some mind-numbing drivel at the beginning, and to read some awful narration in an attempt to tie the whole mess together into some sort of pseudo-documentary. With the inane title INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE slapped on the front, it's a full 17 minutes before we get to the real movie. It's a horrible mess, but still Warren's best picture up to that time. "Without the future, there would be no present," Carradine informs us over the final fade.

Both versions of the film appear on this disc. The print of TERROR is a little scratchy, but looks relatively good. The full screen transfer chops off quite a bit from the right side of the frame, and there's audible projector noise through one reel. Jernberg is joined by a journalist whose name I couldn't catch for an interesting commentrak on the making of this unique film. INVASION looks pretty bad, burned into high contrast and full of scratches and splices, but nevertheless looks better than it ever has on video. The print ends with a Medallion TV logo.

With the profits from the sale of TERROR in his pocket, Unger returned to Sweden to produce an anthology series entitled 13 DEMON STREET. Lon Chaney, Jr. appeared in host segments as an Earthbound demon banished to Earth until he can find an act of evil suitable enough to let him leave (I'd say the 9-11 attack must've sent him home). The disc includes one episode, "Girl in the Glacier," about an anthropologist maddened by love for an icebound figure found in a mine. Unger later turned up as a character actor in Hollywood, often cast with his identical twin brother Bertil.

In keeping with the Swedish theme, the DVD includes two shocking (but obviously phony) widescreen clips from the 1963 mondo documentary ECCO that were filmed there. One captures the disgusting "Lapland reindeer ritual" and the other features Swedish teens running wild in the streets. Here's hoping Something Weird puts together an all mondo DVD soon.

The DVD stretches the theme a bit far by including a half dozen trailers for Swedish sex films of the '60s, which are fun but hardly in keeping with the PG-rated material on the rest of the program.