The film often seems like a better version of Saturn 3 (1980). The scene stealer of the show is co-writer Don Opper (who bills himself in the credits as Max 404, the same name as his character). Opper – thin, gangly and naively awkward – conducts a series of wonderful moments pantomiming dolls dancing while affecting the appropriate male and female voices for each, or imitating positions from sex manuals and James Dean movies to learn about romance. Klaus Kinski bounds through the film in another of the wild-eyed lunatic roles he based his career on. The inventive script serves him well, although there are occasional moments where it seem contrived.

Effective use is made of the modestly well done sets. There are some rather cheesy effects – the police ship, for instance, is destroyed in an animated blob of light rather than an explosion – many of which were reused in other New World science-fiction films. And the result (which one feels has been somewhat over-rated by some critics) comes with considerable inventiveness.

Sadly though for the cult the film has developed, director Aaron Lipstadt and star Don Opper have go on to do little else. Aaron Lipstadt made one other genre film – City Limits (1985) and has since disappeared into directing tv – while Don Opper became a staple of the Critters series, begun with Critters (1986).