Since Jack Finney’s “The Body Snatchers” was first published 70 years ago, screen adaptations — official and unofficial alike — have taken place in small-town USA, Me Decade San Francisco, a military base, high school and so forth. All had a gist in common: humanity being infiltrated and co-opted by a shape-shifting invasive force from outer space. Loosely playing on that theme, Zach Clark ’s “ The Becomers ” adds a new wrinkle, in that this time the body-hopping entities don’t necessarily intend conquest. They just want to co-exist, peacefully. But it turns out they may have chosen the wrong planet and/or species, because they discover today’s mankind is perhaps too messed up to be worth the trouble.

That’s a good starting point for the kind of sly, deadpan humor Clark aims for here. But despite its fantastical element, this episodic story falls short of the curiously winsome dark comedic quirkiness its writer-director achieved with previous films “Little Sister” and “White Reindeer.” A kind of rambling story whose charm fades as one realizes it’s unlikely to go anywhere in particular, “The Becomers” is equally mild as sci-fi, spoof and sociopolitical commentary. It’s offbeat enough to grab your attention, but in the end too underdeveloped to fully reward it.

Russell Mael, known for his work with the cult band Sparks, sets the scene with a voiceover narration. Our nameless, genderless protagonist recounts their past — a narrative woven through the present-tense events of the film — of life on a dying planet. Ultimately, they and their beloved were chosen for evacuation, embarking on separate interstellar journeys.

This leads the narrator to a forested area in Illinois, where the crashed spaceship's pink smoke attracts a hunter (Conrad Dean). Unfortunately, the hunter becomes the first human vessel for the alien, staggering like a zombie towards a stalled car where a woman in distress (Isabel Alamin's Francesca) is about to give birth — a significant inconvenience for all involved. Discovering the rescuer's glowing aquamarine eyes, she becomes the second being to be possessed.

Learning to blend in, “Francesca” checks into a Motel 6, absorbing language and culture through the room's television — even if the channel she watches resembles a parody of Fox News. This assimilation goes smoothly until it becomes clear that police are searching for “her” (the abandoned newborn has been found), and the front desk clerk Gene (Frank V. Ross) shows an unhealthy curiosity about this enigmatic guest. Our hero/ine must disappear again, obtaining a ride from a suburban housewife (Molly Plunk) whose body and home are then taken over.

This proves to be a poor choice, as it turns out that Carol and her husband Gordon (Mike Lopez) are more than just charitable evangelical Christians. They are also fanatical conspiracy theorists in the vein of QAnon, already deeply involved in a criminal plot they believe will combat a “devil-worshipping elite.” This significantly complicates the narrator's reunion with “my lover,” a neon-pink-eyed shapeshifter who appears in one human form (a bus driver played by Jacquelyn Haas) before switching to another. While trying to maintain a low profile, the duo become entangled in a web of intrigue involving the Governor (Keith Kelly), the FBI, and national media.

There's a captivating premise in the idea of space creatures seeking refuge only to find themselves pulled into the more cultish extremes of our strange political landscape, which of course makes no sense to them. But “The Becomers” never fully reaches a level of absurdity or critique necessary to fully exploit this opportunity. Its closest cinematic predecessor is not a “Body Snatchers” variation but John Sayles’ “Brother From Another Planet,” yet it lacks the warmth (or a central performance as compelling as Joe Morton's) of that film to ground its tepidly quirky humor. The voiceover text Mael delivers possesses a dry blend of ordinariness and surrealism that nothing depicted here comes close to amplifying.

The exquisite-corpse nature of the identity-swapping premise keeps Clark's film engaging, though ultimately, it leaves a rather faint impression for such a bold concept. There isn't enough emotional depth to make the extraterrestrial fugitive lovers' plight genuinely moving, as intended, and the social commentary elements promise more than they deliver. Skillfully acted and crafted, “The Becomers” is a clever idea that feels like it's still just being sketched out when it comes to an end.

Dark Star Pictures opened the Chicago-shot indie at NYC’s Cinema Village this weekend, with bookings in other cities to follow, and an On Demand launch Sept. 24.