Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: After his colleague, Dr. Karol Noymann, is killed during an atomic weapon experiment, Dr. Adam Penner resigns in protest of the weapons research. Soon after, he is visited by an alien possessing Noymann's body, warning him of an impending invasion and destruction if the humans don't surrender first. Penner's warnings are ignored and Earth soon is soon facing defeat. The planet's only hope is Penner being able to make the invisible aliens visible. Who's in it? The movie stars John Agar , Philip Tonge, Jean Byron, Robert Hutton and John Carradine . Review: I have had Invisible Invaders in my movie library for a few weeks and, since it had been a little while since I last watched a classic alien invasion film, I figured I'd give it a try this morning. Overall, it was OK but not a movie I would describe as particularly spectacular. The movie does have some good things going for it. For example, the aliens have quite a few advantages over the humans - t...

Synopsis: American newspaperman John Lawrence travels to a remote village in Scotland where Professor Elliott and his assistant, Dr. Mears, are using a telescope to study the newly discovered Planet X. When the professor's daughter, Enid, discovers an alien from the planet has landed in the moors, the men attempt to communicate with the creature. However, it instead uses a ray to take of control Prof. Elliott, Mears, Enid and several villagers and forces them to help it prepare for an invasion. Who's in it? The movie stars Robert Clarke , Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William Schallert and David Ormont. Review: I've had The Man from Planet X in my movie library for some time now but, every time I planned on watching it, I always ended up picking a different movie instead. I finally changed that this morning. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining film despite falling short in some areas. As far as the premise is concerned, I thought it was a good one. This was mostly...

Synopsis: After his security guard is brutally murdered, Costco manager Evan Trautwig decides to form a neighborhood watch group. Much to his chagrin, only three people, Bob, Franklin and Jamarcus, volunteer to join and they are more interested in goofing off. That changes, however, when the men discover their hometown is ground zero for an alien invasion and since the authorities won't believe them, they are mankind's only hope. Who's in it? The movie stars Ben Stiller , Vince Vaughn , Jonah Hill ,  Richard Ayoade and Rosemarie DeWitt. Review: I came across The Watch on one of our movie channels some time ago but remained undecided about whether to watch it. While it seemed interesting, I was also concerned it would end up being too goofy or too raunchy for me to take it seriously. However, my wife and I finally gave it a try today and it turned out to be surprisingly good. First of all, the movie does fall on the raunchy side, both in terms of language and some of th...

Synopsis: An early morning thunderstorm wakes up David MacLean in time to see a flying saucer hovering above a sandpit behind his house. He wakes his father, who goes to investigate but returns with a strange scar on the back of his neck and not acting like himself. Soon after, David's mother, the girl next door and members of the police department are soon acting strangely as well. At first, nobody believes David but with the help of a local astronomer, Dr. Stuart Nelson and health department physician Dr. Pat Blake, the military is soon summoned and fighting with the Martians that are hiding under the sand. Who's in it? The movie stars Jimmy Hunt , Helena Carter , Arthur Franz , Leif Erickson and Hillary Brooke. Review: I have had Invaders from Mars in my library for several weeks and finally decided to take the time to watch it this morning, while my cat was on my lap, and I wasn't getting off the couch anytime soon. While I had some doubts about it, it turned out to ...

Synopsis : A space shuttle crew encounters an alien vehicle while doing research on the passing Halley's Comet. The alien craft contains seemingly dead bat-like creatures as well as three well-preserved human-like beings. By the time the shuttle returns to Earth, all onboard are dead but the three preserved bodies remain intact and are recovered for research. Unfortunately, the aliens also happen to be vampires capable of sucking a person's lifeforce from their body and turn them into one of their own. Who's in it? The movie stars Steve Railsback , Mathilda May , Frank Finlay , Patrick Stewart and Peter Firth. Review: I had heard about the movie Lifeforce before but couldn't remember if I had ever seen it. Since we were looking for something to watch anyway and this happened to be available on Amazon Prime, my wife and I gave it a try last night. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as we hoped it would be. This movie is a great example of a good premise that gets w...

Synopsis: After watching his dad, a Hollywood horse trainer, get killed by coins and keys falling from the sky, OJ Haywood struggles to keep his father's ranch up and running while, at the same time, suspecting the phenomena was caused by aliens. As more strange events happen on the ranch, he and his sister, Emerald, try to capture the UFO on film, hoping to make money from the footage but soon find their lives in danger. Who's in it? The movie stars  Daniel Kaluuya ,  Keke Palmer ,  Brandon Perea ,  Michael Wincott  and  Steven Yeun . Review: I have wanted to see this movie ever since I first saw the trailer. I loved one of writer/director Jordan Peele 's other movies, Get Out and was interested to see how he'd approach the alien invasion genre. My wife and I watched it last night and were not disappointed. There were a couple things I really enjoyed about this movie. One of the main ones is how the film does a good job building the mystery and suspens...

Synopsis: Test pilot Jeff Nolan lands his plane in Britain only to discover most of the Earth's population has been wiped out. He, along with a group of other survivors, take refuge in a hotel and learn the planet is being invaded by spacesuit-clad robots with the ability to turn dead people into zombies. Who's in it? The movie stars Willard Parker , Virginia Field , Dennis Price , Thorley Walters and Vanda Godsell. Review: When I came across this movie early this morning, I was a bit undecided about whether or not I wanted to watch it. The description sounded intriguing but, at the same time, the premise reminded me a little too much of the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space . After a short inner debate, I ended up watching it and enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. While a bit slower paced than I would prefer, the movie has a lot of good things going for it. I personally loved how the movie used the robot invaders, demonstrating their ability to kill a human with a sim...

Synopsis: A specially-modified naval submarine is sent to the North Pole to investigate a series of ship disappearances. They ultimately discover a flying saucer. Who's in it? The movie stars Arthur Franz , Tom Conway , Brett Halsey , Dick Foran and Paul Dubov . Review: I ended up picking out this movie to watch early this morning mostly becaue it had a shorter runtime but also because I enjoyed the last submarine movie I watched . Unfortunately, while this sounded good in the description, I wasn't as big of a fan of this film as I thought I would be. My biggest problem with this movie was there was an awful lot of talking for a film that sounded like it would have a lot of action. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if they would ever do anything exciting at all. It didn't help that the movie, at times, seemed like it was more of a military propaganda film than anything else, especially when the ship's commander (Franz) was arguing with a pacifist scientist (Halsey)...

Synopsis:  After successfully landing a robotic surveyor on Mars, a NASA scientist ,Dr. Dave Fielding, travels to California to spend time with his long-neglected wife and children. Shortly after arriving, he and his family begin to experience strange occurrences involving doppelgangers, which he believes might be related to his Mars mission. Who's in it?  The movie stars  Kent Taylor ,  Marie Windsor ,  William Mims ,  Betty Beall  and  Gregg Shank. Review:  I came across this movie a couple days ago and decided to add it to my watch list. Since I had some free time this evening, I decided to check it out and, after watching it, my opinion was a bit mixed. I am going to start out by saying, as far as alien invasion movies go, this one is a bit on the dull side. Other than one incident involving the daughter's boyfriend ( Lowell Brown ), there really isn't a whole lot of action. The bulk of the movie consists of Dave (Taylor) and his wife (Wi...

Synopsis: As a group of friends prepare to party at a remote cabin, the Earth is invaded by aliens looking to abduct humans by the thousands. Their only hope is a former astronaut turned recluse who has encountered the aliens before. Who's in it? The movie stars Wesley Snipes , RJ Mitte , Laura Bilgeri , Hannah Rose May and Niko Pepaj. Review: My wife and I weren't able to do a whole heck of a lot over our anniversary weekend, mostly because everything is closed because of COVID-19. So, looking for an escape from the horror movie going on outside, we opted for an alien invasion film. Overall, this turned out to be better than I was expecting. Actually, I thought the overall premise was pretty darn good. The aliens weren't just invading and abducting people, they arrived with the purpose of performing experiments on and upgrading humans (for motivations unknown). If nothing else, it was somewhat unique and a little intriguing. The movie also managed to have qui...

Synopsis : A small town is terrorized by clown-like aliens with cotton-candy-shooting guns and a hunger for human blood. Who's in it? The movie stars Suzanne Snyder , John Allen Nelson , John Vernon , Royal Dano , Grant Cramer , Michael S. Siegel and Peter Licassi . Review: This is a movie my wife and I have watched together on more than one occasion. However, when I came across the film on one of our movie channels a couple days ago, I couldn't resist recording it and watching it again. We finished the movie, again, last night and, overall, I was happy with my decision to see it one more time. To tell you the truth, I didn't realize this movie was nearly 30 years old. Since my wife and I discovered it only relatively recently, I thought it was a much-more-recent (albeit low budget) movie. Now that the movie's age has sunk in, I can only appreciate it more. The best way to describe this film is, it isn't really scary or funny. It's just very bizarr...