With a name like Invaders from Proxima B, you’d be forgiven for presuming this low-budget effort from writer, director and star Ward Roberts would be chock full of men in green rubber suits, tacky flying saucers and dodgy laser effects. Well, there are certainly variations on those, but the last thing you’d expect is a quirky body-swap, alien comedy that plays out like a … ahem, stick with me here … Fr-E.T. Friday, if you will.
The story centres around Howie – a budding musician who’s often apart from his family as he chases the dream of making it big in the industry. On a rare return home to his wife and daughter, Howie realises that he’s not the only one to arrive on the doorstep that evening. Enter Chuck – a Proximian deserter who’s apparently travelled light years to get Earth, but he looks like he’s wandered off the set of Sesame Street and sounds like he may have stumbled by the set of The Sopranos in the process.
It’s a good job that Chuck can talk because he’s got a message for Howie …
To say that Invaders from Proxima B is a cheap film would be missing the point as, like so many films with a moderate budget, the success depends entirely on what the creative team can do within those constraints. If the production is unquestionably rather poor for the most part, Roberts at least injects enough playful humour and witty invention into the script to make it a worthwhile 90 minutes for any fan of this small corner of cinema.
There’s also an endearing quality to the simple design of Chuck, and the general playfulness of the character, combined with much of the middle act in general, means there’s certainly enough charm in here to qualify the film as a minor success…
He’s aided by a relatively decent cast for a film of this size, and although some of the performances are certainly amateurish, it was a pleasant surprise to see the great Richard Riehle show up playing the buffoon for all it’s worth, alongside Mike C. Nelson. Amongst the lesser participants it’s clear that Mike Flanagan regular Samantha Sloyan is a cut above the rest, providing a much-needed steady hand to temper some of the less controlled work of others.
The plot progression is surely limited, but it’s what happens in between the moving parts that really matters. Using only a small selection of characters and a handful of effects that were presumably created on the iMac in the background of one particular scene (with a strategically placed sticker over the Apple logo), the sci-fi elements are largely redundant as the film is more interested in the situational comedy it can draw from the special power of the alien creature. Given that Invaders From Proxima B is at its worst towards the finale (when it feels the need to tip over into full-blown space opera), this was probably for the best.
That final act is almost too much for the already fragile grounding to bear, the first hour of the film getting by on the simple appeal of its talking (and farting – yes, some of this humour is extremely lowbrow and I’m here for it), alien, along with the spiralling complications the family and various characters (including the doom prophesying pest controller and wonderfully named oddball Esther Terrestrial), get themselves into. Roberts then feels the need to unnecessarily up the ante, which culminates in a showdown that the budget can’t handle that features what can only be described as a few badly make-upped From Dusk Till Dawn extras wandering around a garden.
It’s an unnecessary switch into a slightly more menacing tone, especially when the script has already wisely offered up an alternative for Chuck’s arrival on Earth. When combined with the final reveal, this whole direction is a spaceship the film simply can’t land.
On the plus side, there’s creativity shown by Roberts despite his limited resources. The brief animation sequences are well done, and the introductions to side characters through tacky influencer-style videos are an amusing aside. There’s also an endearing quality to the simple design of Chuck, and the general playfulness of the character, combined with much of the middle act in general, means there’s certainly enough charm in here to qualify the film as a minor success at times.
There’s a healthy dose of heart to that charm too, as showcased in Chuck’s message to Howie. Incidentally, it’s a nice touch that the film doesn’t feel the need to explain something that can also be shown with a flicker of the eyes …
Ultimately, it’s far too flawed to be considered a full-blown success, but for fans of ultra low budget cinema, you could a lot worse than giving Invaders from Proxima B a chance.
Invaders from Proxima B is exclusively on Fandango at Home (USA) from Friday
