The Galaxy Invader (1985)
Article 5837 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-27-2020
Directed by Don Dohler
Featuring Richard Ruxton, Faye Tilles, George Stover
Country: USA
What it is: Made on a budget

The landing of a UFO in the woods attracts the attention of a boy who calls in a scientist friend to investigate. It also catches the attention of a pair of rednecks who plan to become rich by capturing the alien.

There are some movies where you can point to the exact moment when you knew just what the whole movie was going to be like. This is one of them, and that moment occurred very early on when I saw the name of “Dan Dohler” in the credits. Having seen this man’s THE ALIEN FACTOR and FIEND, I was all prepared for a foray into extreme low budget cinema, sincere but dodgy acting, and since most of the plot descriptions prominently feature the word “redneck”, I figured this would have an extra layer of dumb added to the proceedings. And that’s pretty much what I got here; if anything, it looks even chintzier than THE ALIEN FACTOR, and since the main character is an unpleasant violent drunk who loves shooting guns, it’s really not that much fun. Still, I do find Dohler’s movies easier to bear than, say, Bill Rebane’s; they’re nowhere near as depressing. Still, I have to say that this is the weakest of Dohler’s films I’ve seen to date.