Not far outside of Clarksburg Air Force base, a bus containing several airmen from the base is attacked. The men try to escape into the woods, but they are hunted down and killed. One of them is burnt to a crisp and the only thing left are charred remains. Roger (Ralph C. Bluemke) is the editor for National Scandal, a sleazy tabloid paper that specializes in two headed dog stories and Elvis sightings. He sends reporter Frank McCall (Hans Bachmann) to Clarksburg to cover the story. At the scene he meets Captain Harry Anders (A. Thomas Smith) and his partner Harvey Briggs (Robert Biedermann) from the DOD. Next on the scene is Colonel Faraday (Rick Foucheux). Faraday is in charge of the Air Force base.
When McCall hears about a major weapons test scheduled for that night of a new stealth plane, he sneaks onto the base to photograph it. During the test the plane refuses to obey commands. The pilot shoots the controls and forces the plane to crash. Anders sees McCall taking pictures. He takes him into custody, but McCall ends up kidnapped by two airmen and is taken to a warehouse where two “Men In Black” prepare to inject him with a glowing green fluid. The object is to brainwash him. He is rescued by Anders, but they end up attacked by an alien spaceship. Anders and McCall get away, but Anders’ partner, Harvey, is captured.
Back at the base Anders and McCall find out from Faraday that the software on the stealth plane was from an alien ship that was found in the desert a couple months ago. The technology was reverse engineered. The Air Force called it A.S.M.O.D.S. (Automated Systems Managing Offensive/Defensive Strategies). The software seems to have had an alien virus or alien entity that took over the programming. Now it is taking over the base and turning soldiers into mindless zombies. The alien entity plans on taking over the world.
“Invader” AKA “Naked Robot 4 ½” in Britain, has release dates that are a bit muddled. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991. Reportedly it had a regional theatrical release in 1992 and a VHS release either in 1992 or 1993. The film was also shown on HBO and Cinemax. It was written and directed by Philip J. Cook and is a low budget science fiction “B” movie.
I’m not sure if this movie was supposed to be funny or not. The camp factor is way off the charts and there is a lot of intentional as well as unintentional comedy. It’s not cerebral but it is entertaining, provided you are in the right frame of mind. It has been compared to “Colossus: The Forbin Project” 1970, but other than the theme, don’t expect to see a lot of similarities.
The special effects are ambitious, especially for a low budget movie. Most of them work; a few don’t, but not enough to take away from the overall movie experience. Originally released on VHS, some of the CGI was enhanced for the 2006 DVD release. The movie is outrageous and kinda fun.