Wait, Captain, these farmers like their isolation!
We see Strange Invaders (1983), and we find a strange mixture of elements: good acting by actors faced with odd material; oddly well done special effects which take advantage of shadows and clouds to gesture at the aliens waiting at our door, without wearying us with poorly done details; believable, ordinary characters dealing with an extraordinary world as best they can.
On the other hand, the editing and continuity are a wretched mess; the reactions of the bigger institutions dubious; and a happy ending is tacked on to what could have been a very effective movie if they had, instead, gone with a good noir ending. Thematically, we’re left with a standard Persistence pays off theme; I’m not sure, absent the happy ending, that a rational, appealing theme could be pulled from the debris – but that hypothetical dark ending might have made you cry.
But you do feel like these are characters that were lived in, that had other things to do until Centerville, IL, became a petri dish, and you do find yourself watching, almost despite yourself, as the movie hops erratically along towards a climax less about heroic actions, and more about heroic resolve.
You may enjoy this with mood enhancers, though.
