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Spaced Invaders (1990)

Published on: 30th March, 2026

A story about rubber suits, one cute robot, one mean robot, and a lot of silliness.

Listen in as me and frequent guest, Ben, take a trip back that magical time of the late 80s/early 90s. A time when film put thought, passion, and intent into presenting the viewer with stories that mattered and special effects that boggled the mind.

Or not...

Directed by Patrick Read Johnson (Angus, Baby's Day Out) and written by Johnson (DragonHeart, When Good Ghouls Go Bad) and Scott Lawrence Alexander (Spaced Invaders), TV Guide Magazine called the film "...quite entertaining," while Roger Ebert said "movies like [this] are a waste of time". And, goddamn it, they are BOTH right.

It tells the story of Sam (Douglas Barr), a single father and the new sheriff in town, and his daughter Kathy (Ariana Richards), as they adjust to life in the small town of Big Bean, Illinois. It's Halloween, 1988, and the local radio station is replaying Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds". While Kathy is trying to fit in with the locals and Sheriff Dad attempts to mediate a farm foreclosure, a small battalion of moronic Martians pick up on the vintage radio play. Being utterly stupid, they believe the message as an actual invasion and zoom to Earth to join their brethren in the destruction. When they arrive, they search through the hamlet for the war because they are too dumb to realize what's happening. Bad one-liners and some legitimately hysterical hijinks ensue.

The film is currently available on Amazon for purchase. As of this release, it is also on YouTube for free.

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About the Podcast

Subversive Cinema
The show about the weird, whacky, and downright wrong entries in cinema history.
There are a lot of films out there, so it's only natural that a decent amount of strange content exists. These are the films we examine.

Each week, I sit down with a guest and we take a look a one of these weird, whacky, or downright wrong cinematic entries. Each of them has something about it that makes it special — I call it the "Subversive Sauce" — and that is recipe we try to break down.

Is it scientific? Absolutely not. Will you learn things you didn't know? Maybe. Might you hear about films worth checking out? Most definitely.

Tune in and see what the subversion is all about!
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About your host

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Art Hall

Art started in the podcasting ecosphere back in 2007 with the outrageous, yet short lived, scripted variety show "WBKR: Buckwilde Radio," which claimed listeners from over 20 different countries. After hanging up his headphones and heading west to move to Los Angeles, he kept podcasting in his heart but only made appearances rather than producing or hosting. It only took a global pandemic, boredom, and the pleading from his buddy, Joe, to get back into the mic booth.