Semiquincentennial Movie Project #36: Invasion of the Space Preachers

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

Week #36: West Virginia -

 

 

 

The state of West Virginia was established on June 20, 1863 

Details about West Virginia:

State bird: cardinal

State flower: rhododendron

State tree: sugar maple

Additional historical trivia:

You probably know; West Virginia came about because a sector of Virginia disagreed with the state seceding from the Union during the Civil War.

On that note: the first significant conflict of the Civil War was the Battle of Philippi, fought in WV. 

Anne Jarvis, a WV native, created the holiday we know as Mother's Day.

Wilt Chamberlin's NBA record 100 points in a game pales by comparison to Danny Heater, who scored a whopping 135 points in one game. And that was in a game that only lasted 32 minutes!

The least modernized county in the U.S., Monroe County, has 0 traffic lights in the entire county. (A website I saw also said there were no fast food places in the county.)

Famous people born in West Virginia: Don Knotts, Peter Marshall (original host of Hollywood Squares), Brad Paisley, Red Sovine (trucker song singer; Teddy Bear, Phantom 309, Giddy-Up Go), Randy Moss, George Brett, Pearl S. Buck and Chuck Yeager, 

 

 

Strangest Dreams: Invasion of the Space Preachers (1990): 

This is a movie, not initially made by the infamous Troma Entertainment, but was released by them, so if you are familiar with their output you know what is coming next... low budget trip with outrageous (and possibly offensive) humor and a satirical bent. Their most well-known output would include The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'em High and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.

Note: There are virtually no pics for this film on Google, and I don't know how to do screenshots, so apologies... 

Invasion of the Space Preachers is an absurd film. (You were expecting Citizen Kane from the Troma company?) It stars nobody you ever heard of. (Once again, it's Troma. You're not going to get Anthony Hopkins...) Most of the actors and actresses in this film have less than 6 roles to their credit, and almost all of them for movies directed by the director, Daniel Boyd (W\who himself only has 6 movies to his credit).

The basic plot jumps off by having two fairly clueless guys, Walter (Jim Wolfe) and  Rick (Guy Nelson), out on a get away to a remote cabin in the backwoods hills of West Virginia. Walter is a dentist (and probably not one you'd trust near you with a tooth drill). rick has an exciting life as a secret agent. (Actually he's just an accountant with a predilection for creating fantasy lives for the entertainment of the local kids).

The boys get a little lost and end up in a hick bar where the locals tell them that they should avoid Truman Gator (John Marshall) like a hangover. Except Truman is the guy these two ended up renting their getaway cabin from. And true to the warnings, Truman tries to milk these two for every cent he can get out of them.

But before they meet Truman they have an encounter with Reverend Lash (Gary Brown), a preacher who seems to have an unusual control and effect on the locals.  He also has a predilection for using a whip to get his point across (hence the name "Lash"... get it?)

 

Just when you think it couldn't get any weirder, the two find a downed spaceship and an alien who is alive but somewhat incapacitated. They take the alien with them to the cabin. (Wouldn't you?) The cabin turns out to be something less than advertised, it's a shambles. They put the alien in a nearby shed and go to sleep.

When they wake up, they find the alien gone! They also find themselves in trouble with a local survivalist group, led by Vic (Jesse Johnson), who think they might not be all that on the up-and up, and capture them and put them in a chicken cage. Fortunately for them, one of their girlfriends comes along and vouches for them. The "girlfriend" in question is actually the alien they rescued, who identifies herself as Nova (Eliska Hahn). (BTW: Ms. Hahn just passed away last month...)

 

It turns out that Nova comes from the same planet that Reverend Lash came from (as if you wouldn't know Lash was an alien by now...) It seems that back on her home planet Lash, who is known to her as Krytar", killed her brother and she is now seeking revenge.

 

So what is Lash/Krytar doing on Earth? Well, it seems he has some nefarious plan to turn the Earth citizens into mindless zombies (although for what purpose is never exactly explained...) As such, he is spouting some ridiculous drivel about peace, love and harmony (and dedication to the Reverend Lash). 

Vic comes along, now friends with Walter  and Rick, and takes them on a survivalist training mission up in the mountains, but is disappointed to find that the two dweebs  have no more idea what to do with a gun than a vegan does with air fryer.

Meanwhile, this movie also tries to be part musical. There are a couple of scenes with a rockabilly wannabe, Johnny Angel (John Riggs). Johnny also ends up becoming an ally of Walter and Rick, but on the other side, the songs he does make the film a bit more bearable. 

Eventually (...!) we get to the climax, where Lash has acquired the use of a a TV hookup so he can exert his nefarious plan on a wider scale. And the ultimate showdown, made all the more difficult because Lash/Krytar has managed to convert most of the town to zombies. (One might wonder why Lash/Krytar set his initial sights so low by starting with a backwoods hicksburg West Virginia town, instead of, say, San Francisco, like the aliens did in the 1976 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers...)

 

One thing of note for this film.. scan back up and look at the movie poster. Even though the girl, Nova, is pictured in a one-piece swimsuit, at no point during this movie does she ever wear one. That's what I call false advertising.

Invasion of the Space Preachers is pretty ridiculous, even for Troma. It has the feel of "Let's just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks to it". It was a direct-to-video release, so information on it's production is fairly thin. It has a 4 out of 10 IMDb rating, and absolutely nothing on the Tomatometer. Contemporary reviews, as such, are nil.

Entertainment wise, it's not much, but jeez, if you wanted me to pick something like Sweet Dreams or Patch Adams or, God help us!, Rain Man you came to the wrong blog. It's not worth a second watch, I admit, but it is stupid and quirky enough to spend a rainy afternoon with if you don't want to clean house.

See you next time, folks. And if you are channel surfing on your radio, beware of some of those radio preachers... one of them might just not be what he seems to be...

Quiggy