L'invasion vient de Mars

The movie itself is pretty campy and you can't expect a whole heck of a lot out of it, just some cheesy 80's sci-fi fun, but what stands out for me was that I was an extra in this movie and got to experience the making of the movie first hand! I remember, I was in elementary school and got the opportunity to be in this movie. The first day that I participated was at the school scenes. At first I was one of the kids that was playing outside in the yard and then I was one of the kids walking in the hallway of the school. I can't recall if I was in the classroom, I haven't seen the movie since right after it came out and I just ordered the DVD so I'll have to check it out.

The other day that I was on set in a state park that was in Malibu, CA where they filmed several different scenes. One of which was a yellow school bus with kids/drones on it. I was in that bus, just staring forward with no expression, as per the direction from Tobe Hooper.

It was a fun experience and my first time ever in the movie biz so I'll always have a special little place in my heart for this movie. Good times!

Invaders from Mars (1986)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Tobe Hooper's disappointing remake of the 1950s classic about a young boy (Hunter Carson) who witnesses a UFO land in his backyard and soon realizes that aliens are overtaking various people in town. The only person who will believe him is a teacher (Karen Black) and the two quickly find themselves hunted by the aliens. There were a lot of remakes going on during this era so it makes since that someone would try to remake INVADERS FROM MARS but The Cannon Group probably should have left it to someone else while they just worried about their Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris pictures. Or, perhaps they could have added Bronson and Norris to this thing and at least delivered some fun. This is a really lifeless, over-long and rather pointless remake that doesn't have much of anything going for it. Just about the only good thing that can be said about the film belongs to the special effects, which were pretty good. I thought the landing of the spaceship was rather effective with the lights being used and the monsters certainly looked very good. I also thought the set design of the cave was well done but sadly everything else here is just a bust. The biggest problem is the direction by Hooper who just doesn't bring any energy to anything going on. No matter what a scene calls for the director completely misses the boat and this includes the early scenes with him trying to show this "loving" family. There's so much sugar added to these scenes that you can't help but roll your eyes. Then when the boy comes under attack you'd expect there to be some suspense but there isn't. There are even a few hints at some comedy but this doesn't work either. The final forty-minutes of the film goes into action mode with all sorts of gun play, explosions and other craziness but these scenes too fail to gather up any excitement or energy. The performances really aren't anything to write home about either. Black is about as over-the-top in her emotions as one could get. Carson, as the young boy, isn't charming a bit and comes off more annoying than anything else. Timothy Bottoms plays the father and isn't all that entertaining. James Karen, from THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, is also so over-the-top that it seems like he thinks he's in some spoof. Even former Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher goes overboard as the psycho teacher. Jimmy Hunt, the boy from the original film, gets a fine cameo. INVADERS FROM MARS is considered one of the biggest disasters from the 80s and it's easy to see why Hooper's career started to go down. With such a budget they really should have came up with something much better but at least we have the original to go to.

Hooper and his writers seem to want to both parody the 1950s classic and, at the same time, to be a straight remake of it. Trouble is that this simply isn't possible. It looks great throughout, with superb, shadowy photography and generally good production design (though the Martian drones look more silly than anything else). Some of the actors, particularly Karen Black and Louise Fletcher, are very good; some, unfortunately including lead Hunter Carson, are not very good.

But the main failing is that the tone is so inconsistent. Some scenes are played for horror, and work; some are played as if the intent was comic, and they don't work. If the intent was to actually scare us, after being taken over by the Martians, the parents should have acted creepy -- but instead, they act silly, which is hardly the same thing. It's not the fault of Bottoms and Newman -- they could have played the roles however the director and script suggested -- but rather a failure to go for broke. In the original film, after returning from the sand pit, the father brutally slaps his son. Here, the big weird touch is that he fills his coffee cup with sweetener. Doesn't quite have the same impact.

And what's with the frogs? Kids LIKE frogs; they don't regard them as creepy. There should never have been a scene without the boy in it, but there are several. There should have been some touches of surrealism to fit the all-a-dream scenario. Dream logic isn't like waking logic, but it's stringent nonetheless; this film ignores logic. In the original, the Martians take over the parents, the neighbor kid, the cops and the military -- exactly the targets a boy would expect. Adding a teacher wasn't a bad idea, but the other targets here, including a busload of kids, don't make any sense. Why would the Martians want to control a bunch of children?

The effects are good but not as well-conceived as they might have been. The sand funnel that captures people is fancier in this remake, but much eerier in the original. And Christopher Young's score is a disaster.

The opportunity was here to make a technologically-improved version of a much-loved classic original, but for the most part, the film doesn't live up to its potential.

Horror genre icon Tobe Hooper takes the directorial reigns and creates this remake of the fine film of the same name from the 50's. This Invaders from Mars is a lot different in many ways. Wheras the original was strictly a science fiction film about the dangers of alien attack and a hidden agenda about who you could trust from a child's point of view, this version goes for laughs as well. Sometimes these "laughs" detract from the thematic structure of the film. Basically the story is the same, but there are ample distinctions as well. A young boy sees a cosmic entity land just beyond his house, discovers changes in his parents, and eventually enlists the aid of a school nurse and later the military to crush the alien threat from Mars. Hooper does some obvious homage type stuff, all of that working very well I thought. The lighted path to the hill had an almost surreal look to it and was reminiscent of the original. Hooper had a school name after Menzies, the director of the original film. The child star falls short in his role exuding limited credibility, but most of the other performers are adequate. Lovely Karen Black plays the nurse, and Timothy Bottoms and Laraine Newman portray the youngster's parents. James Karen camps it up as the general in charge of the military. The performance problem for me was Louise Fletcher. Sure, she makes for a great witchy teacher, but her campy performance was a bit much at times - too incredible. Hooper also over does it with some of the special effects. The Martian creatures really look quite ridiculous with fat bodies and mouths the size of Volkswagens. But some of the effects are pulled off nicely, such as the sand tunnels and the men being devoured in the middle of a sandy pit. This remake, while I firmly believe an unnecessary remake, has some fun aspects to it and is if nothing else an interesting and diverting film. I am not at all sure of what hooper was trying to achieve at the end of the film, but I did feel it was quite contrived and departed from the spirit of the film's unity.

Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), visual effects wizard John Dykstra (Star Wars), make-up FX genius Stan Winston (Aliens), screenwriter Dan O'Bannon (Alien), cinematographer Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre): there's a wealth of experience and talent behind this lavish '80s remake of '50s cold-war sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars, but it amounts to little more than a thoroughly cheesy and rather camp piece of trashy escapism. For some, that might be enough, but given its pedigree, I expected, nay, DEMANDED much more.

The film's weakest point is undoubtedly its young lead Hunter Carson, who appears in almost every scene, but is unable to even run convincingly, let alone persuade the viewer that the planet is under threat from Martians (what's with the flappy arms, Hunter?). A better actor in the central role would have helped immensely, although Hooper's direction also proves lacklustre, his film lacking in suspense but loaded with schmaltz (the overly saccharine opening family scenes suggest that the director spent far too long in the presence of Spielberg during the filming of Poltergeist). Serving to undermine the film's effectiveness further are the somewhat clunky aliens—far from Winston's best work.

Mindlessly entertaining in the way that only an '80s Cannon movie could be, the film is admittedly never boring, and benefits from some interesting set design and impressive lighting, but as a big-budget sci-fi (by Cannon Pictures' standards, at least) from the man who gave us Leatherface, this can only be deemed a disappointment. Oh, well, at least this film's failure (along with his previous sci-fi/horror flop Lifeforce) resulted in Hooper returning to familiar territory for the long-awaited Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.