The film with many, many names.
“Terror in the Midnight Sun” AKA “Horror in the Midnight Sun”, “Invasion of the Animal People” and “Space Invasion of Lapland”. There are a bunch of versions out there. The actual real Swedish release is 73 minutes long, the US version is 55 minutes long and the US TV version is 80 minutes long.
Diane Wilson (Barbara Wilson) is traveling in Sweden where she meets up with her uncle Dr. Vance Wilson (Robert Burton), a famous geologist. He is in Sweden to help investigate a reported meteorite landing. Dr. Wilson’s associate is Dr. Erik Engstrom (Sten Gester). Erik is attracted to Diane and, after she plays hard to get, he eventually wins her over.
The Doctors hear about a herd of mutilated reindeer in the Arctic mountains in the north part of Lapland near where the meteorite was reported. They go there to check out the situation. They decide to check out the meteorite and see if there is any evidence that it is related to the mutilations. Diane stows away aboard their plane. When they get there it is determined that the meteorite is actually an alien space craft.
While the group is inspecting the space ship something attacks the plane and destroys it and kills the soldier guarding it. Diane and Erik go to get help. Diane falls and hurts her knee. They eventually find a shack. Diane stays there and Eric goes on for help. The creature shows up at the cabin. Eric runs back to the shack. The creature starts an avalanche on the shack and Eric is knocked out. Diane runs out into the night. When Eric wakes up Dr. Wilson is there but Diane is gone. The creature finds her and takes her to the space ship. A search party has been formed. They are talking to villagers about sightings of the beast at their camp. All of a sudden the monster appears and attacks the village. He has Diane’s scarf. The search party follows the monster hoping that it will lead them to Diane.
"Terror In The Midnight Sun" was released in 1959 and was directed by Virgil W. Vogel. The original Swedish movie was directed by Virgil Vogel, and written by Arthur C Pierce. It was Produced by Bertil Jernberg and Gustaf Unger and had a run time of 73 minutes. When it was eventually released in the US it was only about 70 minutes long. I believe it is missing a rather racy shower scene with Barbara Wilson’s double. Of course the two chopped up versions are also missing the shower scene.
The American version was sold to Jerry Warren who shortened it to 55 minutes. He gave the movie a new beginning and added a narration in the opening and closing by John Carradine. New footage was added in America using Barbara Wilson as her Diane Wilson character. Some bizarre stuff about and earlier UFO contact incident. Additional footage taking place in Sweden as well as stuff cut from the original movie. The name was then changed to “Invasion of the Animal People”.
After that the movie went to Television syndication. More American footage was added and some Swedish put back in bringing it up to 80 minutes in length. The extra footage had a bunch of doctors discussing Diane’s earlier UFO trauma and some kind of scene where she has a flash back and runs out into the night. Yada yada yada. All this happens before the actual Swedish film even begins.
Suffice it to say that if you are going to watch this movie, try and find the original “Terror in the Midnight Sun”. Although it’s not a great movie at least it makes more sense then whatever Jerry Warren did to it. I know “Something Weird” offers a two fer for both the 70 minute version and the 55 minute version but I heard the quality is bad. It’s up to you. All in all, the original is not bad. The pace was a little slow but the special effects were decent. It’s a slightly different take on the usual alien invasion movie.