This was director Arnold’s penultimate of seven horror/sci-fi outings from the same decade and, in retrospect, the least of them. Its focus on children (the title itself is ambiguous – since the kids don’t come from space but rather are ‘possessed’ by aliens into sabotaging a rocket-launching station!) draws parallels to later genre classics such as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and the unrelated THESE ARE THE DAMNED (1963): like the former, the children here are able to influence the actions of their elders and, as in the latter, much of it takes place against a backdrop of remote cavernous surroundings. As for the alien itself, it’s nothing more substantial (or imaginative) than a growing, glowing glob!
Being just 68 minutes long, this undeniably earnest film can’t hope to fulfill its aspiration of being a profound anti-nuclear parable; for one thing, the characters are mere stereotypes – an average American couple with their modest dreams and dilemmas, a bubbly yet cagey neighbor (played by Jackie Coogan, of Chaplin’s THE KID [1921] and TV’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY fame!), another’s a drunken boor who mistreats one of the boys and his mother, plus the requisite number of dedicated but callous scientists and military personnel. Actually, I was wondering all through the picture why the alien didn’t simply possess one of the parents or scientists – surely his attempts at persuading colleagues to halt the missile project would have had greater chance of success, since the children’s clandestine activities merely irritate the hell out of the people at the base engaged in such a secretive operation! That said, unexplained events that occur – such as the driver of a fuel truck losing control of his vehicle or nominal hero Adam Williams losing his voice and the faculty to write when trying to divulge the presence of the alien to his superiors! – come across as creepier when caused by innocent-looking children and, besides, their presence near the test site is more likely to be overlooked than rouse suspicion of any foul play.
In the end, the film is tolerable (the print, then, seemed to be culled from a TV screening – since the picture fades in and out every once in a while, sometimes even in mid-sequence, where the publicity spots may have been inserted – with a good deal of hiss on the soundtrack!) but rather uninspired and, what’s more, is defeated by the low-budget. Though genre expert Arnold had proved time and again what he was capable of doing, it suffers especially in comparison with the two DAMNED films mentioned above or even a third such title, CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)…which I actually need to re-evaluate myself, but recall being an underrated achievement on my sole viewing of it so far.
