Invasion of the Animal People (Rymdinvasion i Lappland in Sweden and Terror in the Midnight Sun[3] internationally) is a 1959 Swedish-American black-and-white science fiction-monster film released to Swedish cinemas on August 19, 1959.

[4] The film was produced by Bertil Jernberg and Gustaf Unger, directed by American Virgil W. Vogel,[5] and stars Barbara Wilson, Robert Burton, and Stan Gester.

An enormously tall, hairy biped creature, with powerful jaws, tusks, and large round feet, under the control of three humanoid aliens in the spaceship, comes out of nowhere and begins menacing the scientists and the native Laplanders.

The tall beast destroys the scientists' aircraft, killing the soldier guarding it, and begins tearing apart Laplander houses with its bare hands.

The Laplanders give chase and are finally able to confront the huge creature, who is now standing with its back to the edge of a deep snow cliff.

Angry villagers begin throwing their fire torches, and the tall monster carefully places Diane on the ground, where she is able to roll several feet away.

More torches are thrown and the hairy creature catches on fire, falling backward fully engulfed over the cliff to a fiery death down below.

After telling Jernberg that "Paramount is going to buy it", Unger promptly sold the film to American producer Jerry Warren and kept all of the money he received from the transaction for himself.

[10] After other Swedish plot details were re-edited or cut entirely from the original (including a nude shower scene featuring Barbara Wilson),[11] this new version was distributed in United States under Jerry Warren's title Invasion of the Animal People.

The extra footage involved a group of doctors sitting in an office discussing the Diane Wilson character's various psychiatric problems.

A flashback sequence begins by showing the audience Diane Wilson's earlier UFO incident: While asleep in her bed, the young woman experiences an extraterrestrial visit, awakening to a horrible, ear-splitting sound that only she can hear.

"[16] Writing in AllMovie, critic Fred Beltin described the film as "thick with ponderous double talk that never advances the story and usually confuses it," but noted that "while the original Swedish film isn't terribly remarkable beyond its unique geographic setting, when compared to the muddled jumble that [American Producer Jerry] Warren concocted, it shines far brighter than it would on its own.