Thursday Movie Picks: Alien Invasion of Earth

I actually had quite a long list of possibilities for this theme, I had forgotten just how mant great films out there that had aliens invading places. I'd like to point out that none of these films were Independance Day. Don't forget to check out what Wandering Through the Shelves picked, the blog that started Thursday Movie Picks.

1. The World's End

The unofficial third film in Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy, the Mint flavour, the film is about friendship, forgiveness, growing up and an alien invasion. Filmed in nondescript Welwyn Garden City outside of London, the story is about friends forced together for by one of them (who happens to be going through a breakdown) to relive the infamous pub crawl they never completed when they were young. While this is going on, the group slowly realise that everyone has been replaced by alien copies. It's great fun, hilarious and has that emotional punch that is always done so well by Wright.

2. Signs

I know that many people don't think much of this M. Night Shyamalan film about a global alien invasion seen and experienced through a family who have recently gone through a sudden tragic event. This was the first film that made me sit up and take notice of Joaquin Phoenix, bear in mind I was only 13 years old at the time but I could appreciate him. I had only just started reading Empire, I was just learning that about film, but this alien invasion film was different. There were no big action sequences, no typical traits to note, this was a family drama that had a deeper meaning to it. There isn't a twist as expected with MNS's films but there is a sense of foreboading. If disapproved first time, watch it again under a different light.

3. Village of the Dammed (1960)

I wrote a previous post about this film after enjoying it and being terrified by it during BFI's science fiction season, here it is. The basics are, the film is based on the novel, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham and follows the inhabitants of a small country village after a strange event. One day everyone just collapses, waking up several hours later not knowing what happened. Then all the women who can bear children are pregant, including a few teenage girls who are virgins. They all give birth at the same time to children who all have blonde hair and do not resemble their parents in anyway. Eventually, after some spooky murderous stares, it comes to ligh that they are aliens are actually just one colony that survived. Other colonies were set up but all failed in different ways. It's a brilliant British film, giving you that awful tingle of fear down your spine. Theres something about creepy blonde children that push you to the edge thinking this is more horror.