We endured this turkey in its entirety last night after watching "Destination Moon" (1950), so we were certainly in the right frame of mind for a good dose of hokey 1950's "B" sci-fi. This is a disappointingly dull and uninteresting pot-boiler, obviously intended for no other purpose than being run as a second feature. I am baffled by the reviews here claiming that this is "ahead of its time" and comparing it with old "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone". I have to wonder if I was really watching the same movie. The acting could have been done as well by wooden cigar-store Indians. The dialog (for the most part) is insipid. The only "special effects" are a shaky and out-of-focus camera on a few shots. While the director had a great location to work on - a massive old mansion - he failed miserably in using it to his best advantage. He could have used the setting to really ramp up the tension (as was done with "Saltair" in "Carnival of Souls") but instead about half of the movie is shots of the two main characters wandering around and back and forth, seemingly lost on a large estate. When the best things about a movie are the cars (a 1954 MG TF, a 1962 Plymouth Fury Wagon, and a 1960 Plymouth Taxi Special), and it's NOT a movie about cars, you know it's a loser.

I was about 9 when this came out at the local theatre. I loved SyFy and horror movies and was expecting a good time. I was very disappointed. No monstrous aliens, no spaceships, no planetary surfaces, not even a clearly evil villain to be rattled by. Other than being fascinated by the ostentatious Greystone Mansion and its immaculate landscaping I was totally bored. I don't really think I understood what was going on at all.Decades later it was showing on some late night TV feature so I stuck in a VHS tape and went to bed. At 50+ years of age I found myself much more appreciative of the quality of this production. Though obviously low-budget with non-existent special effects I recognized that the director had created a superb atmosphere of mystery and fear. As a child I wasn't able to get it, but as an adult I most definitely did. (Interestingly, I was still enthralled by the Greystone Mansion. I have a peculiar romantic taste for such construction.)Though it will never be high on anyone's list of best science fiction movies it deserves far better than the short shrift rendered by my 4th grade analysis. I understand that it is now available on DVD and will definitely give it some consideration.

A scientist, the brains behind a Martian probe, returns to his wife and family because things are starting to fall apart in the marriage. They are currently living in a part of a mansion. Once there, strange events occur. He is walking around when he sees his wife, but she doesn't respond to him. When he sees her later, she says she has been in the house all along. Soon there is an opposite event with her seeing him as a threat. The children are affected too. We are finally let in on things. Doppelgangers of these people have formed from a kind of energy scan. At one point, the handsome young boyfriend of the teenage girl is killed when he crashes his car trying to avoid her on the road. This copy later appears in the girl's bedroom. What can they do? This has some tight suspense. The down side would be that it gives its principle characters little or no power to counteract what is going on. By the way, if I had seen this as a young child, I would have not slept for a week.

I kind of liked this movie. It's not only got the classic look and feel, it really is classy. I especially liked the doctor and his family.In this movie less than 10 people appears. The story's premise is that after the earth sends a rover probe to Mars, martians comes to observe the earth in the form of the professor who invented the probe.The invasion is of small scale, and is not sure what the Martian's plan of attacks are, but they copy the body of the professor's family and friend.The reason I liked this movie was that all the characters are kind of beautiful, and classy. Professor lives in this big mansion that makes Bruce Wayne look poor. The good old days seem really good old days when I watch this movie. The movie is low budget, but is well crafted, and I liked it for what it is.