Alien Trespass -- 2 of 5 stars

Vintage ‘50s cars, vintage clothes and ‘50s vintage cheese are the selling points of Alien Trespass, a monster movie that tries to recreate the slick, silly B-movies of the Eisenhower era. If it isn’t remotely as funny as the filmmakers seemed to think in the planning, at least movie buffs can appreciate the attention to 1950s film production values.

Trespass is presented as a “lost” film from a movie star of the day (Eric McCormack) whose “finest film” was buried by a studio chief he was feuding with. A newsreel tips us to this in the opening, along with setting the scene (1957, the space race, UFO mania) that the movie was created in.

Then we’re tossed into a conventional, whimsical spin on Them, The Blob and every other drive-in feature about alien invaders in the small desert town where a spaceship crash lands. McCormick plays a scientist made into a pod person by an alien in Day the Earth Stood Still suit. He tries to defend assorted townsfolk (Dan Lauria, Jenni Baird, Robert Patrick)„© from a one-eyed people-eater straight out of the annual Simpsons Halloween episode.

Desert scenes plainly shot on soundstages, day-for-night photography, rear-projection landscapes and driving scenes and guy in a rubber suit monster.

Yup. That’s how they did’em back then. And?

Screening at: Regal Winter Park 20, 9:30 p.m. Sat. April 4; 5 p.m. Sun. April 5.