Home Invasion
Episode 6 of Invasion Season 1 actually looks to be moving things in the right direction, delivering a creepy and tense self-contained chapter with Aneesha and her family.
Before we get there though, the chapter begins with Aneesha changing her mind and deciding to head back to her family after all. Stopping the ambulance, she charges through the abandoned road back whence she came. Along the way she finds a whole military convoy, completely ravaged and mutilated. Sure would have been nice to see some of that action in this show, eh?
Aneesha eventually heads back to Patrick’s cabin but finds the place completely deserted. And seemingly quite recently too. The kettle is still on the gas hob, whistling fearfully, while something appears to be in the house with her. Aneesa scrambles up to the rooftop where she finds her family, along with Patrick and Kel, hiding out.
When fighting inevitably breaks out thanks to panic and fear, Sarah falls through the ceiling and lands hard on her back. As she begins crying, Aneesha charges down to help her. Together, they scramble into the closet.
It’s here we catch our first glimpse of our alien invaders, complete with sharp limbs and legs that seem to move around its hulk. At 23 minutes into this episode there’s a pretty good shot of the creature in the mirror, and its way of moving is quite unique.
Unfortunately, Kel slips in the same hole Sarah did, and finds herself mutilated by the creature. The sickening chomps are enough to confirm she’s a goner, alongside her bloodcurdling screams of course.
Meanwhile, Aneesha and Sarah take cues from A Quiet Place, believing these aliens move based on sound. She and Sarah sneak down to the basement and decide to hang tight for the time being.
Up on the landing, Luke and Ahmed communicate down with them, complete with hand signals and a pretty impressive overhead shot with all four in the same frame. It’s incredibly tense, as Ahmed does his best to try and shift the barricaded furniture in front of the door to escape. Ahmed tentatively moves everything, one piece at a time.
Aneesha notices the creature though and tries to get Ahmed’s attention. But it’s too late. The creature pounces, knocking Ahmed down, while Aneesha grabs the kids, smashes the window and heads out to safety.
Scrambling for the car, Patrick too is still alive and he throws them the car keys. When Patrick is taken out by the alien, the creature comes for the kids. Armed with the chunk of metal Luke grabbed from before, Aneesha stabs the creature multiple times, which eventually kills it. Ahmed stumbles out the house and reveals that he’s still alive too, although very clearly in a rough way.
As the four drive away, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
So Invasion returns with a self-contained chapter that lives up to its title “Home Invasion”. Following Aneesha and her family we finally get some action in this creepy and tense chapter. This is easily the best of the whole season, but the fact it’s taken this damn long to get it is a real disappointment.
It also doesn’t help that most of this season has been consumed by character drama and brushed over a lot of the actual fighting and invasion part of Invasion. It seems it’s already happened now and despite the lavish set design and visuals, we don’t actually see humanity’s downfall.
Like the military soldiers earlier this episode, for example, it would have been nice to see them taken out or at least pepper in a few flashbacks to see that.
However, credit where credit is due, this was a really good episode and the shorter run-time at 30 minutes is certainly a good way of packing this home invasion plot into a digestible and tense little package. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the season ahead.
Edit: A fair few people have commented online about the brightness level, both in the comments and on forums which is pretty important. Having re-watched bits of the episode, there’s definitely a lighting issue here so do be aware of that when watching guys!
Previous Episode |
Next Episode |
You can read our full season review for Invasion Season 1 here! |
|
-
Episode Rating
(3.5)
I can’t believe someone was able to see so much in this dark episode. I agree with the few comments that it made no sense that the creature wasn’t attracted to the kettle noise and the light of the fire.
This episode where i couldn’t see one second of what was going on is almost my last straw… I love these kind of shows, but this show is so boring & then they top off the most exciting eposide with a black screen & screaming & shushing.
Filmed mostly in the dark, impossible to see anything, plot getz worse and worse, I am rating this underwhelming movie from poor to pathetic.
What were they thinking with the black levels in episode 6. Just a terrible idea. Crazy distracting, not enjoyable at all. It is a lost episode – you can skip it.
I really object the the Bernard Herrmann-esque score.
Formulaic and moved at a glacial pace. A whistling kettle and mother screaming her children’s names doesn’t attract the creature but a creaking door does? So dark, it’s difficult to watch. I get that the director is trying to immerse viewers in the protagonists emotional sphere but… this drags on worse than Lovecraft.
I could not stand this episode! Virtually the whole thing takes place at night, in a house with no lights and the only lighting is occasional lightning flashes in the window. Then it moves to a car, at night with the only lighting seeming to be the glow from the radio dial. After listening two various people screaming and other people shouting “keep quite” for about 10 minutes I just stopped watching and fast forwarded to see if thing got better (lighted). They don’t! This may have seemed like an artsy idea to the director but I founded it annoying and unwatchable. Episode 7 better be better lighted or I’m done with this series!
I also thought my tv was failing.
I watched episode 6 and I’m still yet to fall in love with this series the only reason I’m still watching is I hope it surprises me. Still dont get why Aneesha just left her family and went with the doctors and all of a sudden she has a change of heart and runs thru towns to get back to her family she has no idea what’s in the house but somehow to break the window and get into the house. The Alien which is somehow attracted to noise is nowhere the kettle that’s making noise to furiously attack it and yet when Ahmed moves a bookshelf ever so slightly it attacks. When the little girl screams when she falls her mum has time to get the thru the roof and go save her without any harm befalling her. This could be a good series but the scripting is not great as well as the lighting plus them taking so long to get to the point of showing us the actual invaders to me is a big flaw as well. I wud rate this series 2.5 so far
Hey Anthony,
Thanks so much for reading! I genuinely thought it was just my monitor to be honest! Granted I watched this really late at night in near-darkness so that may have actually helped brighten it up a bit too! I’ll edit the recap slightly actually to mention the lighting as that’s pretty important.
Really appreciate the comment!
-Greg W
Thanks for the review. I needed it, since even with a keen eye, I was unable to ‘see’ any of that as described. It was filmed so dark that I had to rely on sound to have any idea of what was going on. In fact I fast forwarded some of it, like a flicker movie to ‘see’ the action.
I look forward to some ‘brighter’ episodes to come.