THE CLOVERDALE SWITCH

This begins with the world flashing negative (black is white, etc.), as in a scarier Shirley Jackson story; then it has robot duplicates from space replace John's girlfriend and seven other people in Cloverdale (a motif familiar from some well-known blockbusters and less-known duds); and it ends with a simple tribute to love that could only mark a juvenile version. At first, after the flash, John doesn't understand girlfriend Cindy's peculiar behavior; but when his Gramps hears about her little black box-and then sees small animals (flies too) drop like flies when it's turned on—he has it all figured out, except why. So Gramps and John plot to unmask the eight aliens; and when John confronts the fake Cindy he persuades her to reverse the switch and learns that the not-so-sinister intruders had come down just to learn about human feelings. Why did they pick Cloverdale? Because there's so much love there, explains the stand-in Cindy, a tear trickling down her "molded" face after John's kiss. Run-of-the-pod.