Incredibly bad filmmaking
Some of the dumbest writing and filmmaking I've ever seen...
So the cops throw a 12 year old (?) boy in jail. Did they really do that in the 50s? Ridiculous. Then the parents come and they don't let them have him back. So dumb. And how many times (lost count) did they show the aliens running (really dorky I may add) using the same exact footage over and over. Did they really think no would notice? How about the same shot of the sand area from multiple POVs, including a telescope and a rooftop, who knows how far apart? Such insanely horrible filmmaking, I don't care how low budget it was. I don't care how old it was. It was about the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
Maybe my favorite was when the mind-controlled parents go to assassinate the doctor with all the beakers. I know that editing methods and styles are radically different 50 years later, but really. I have to sit here and watch him run and run and run...and run and run...and then finally arrive there. And then watch him run and run and run...and run and run back to the car. Would it have killed the director to have ONE cutaway? Maybe a close up of the wife worried? Anything but two minutes of the guy running. Its laughable.
It started out so well. A story about the kid experiencing all the townsfolk acting weird was great. Then it truly fell apart. I don't know if I've seen such a blatant overuse of stock footage, that didn't match and tried to match the night footage.
As I mentioned in a reply earlier, I love 50s creature features. This one isn't fun or endearing or charming in any way.