When David comes home from school and turns on the TV, the movie playing is Lifeforce (1985), also directed by Tobe Hooper.
The Martian drone creatures were performed by two people back-to-back in one suit. A little person was carried in a sort of backpack on the back of a normal-sized performer. The little person would operate the drone's mouth and smaller arms (as seen when the drones load their weapons) while the full-sized performer made the creature walk and used ski poles to move the longer arms (as seen when the drones "salute" Mrs. McKeltch). The full-sized performer faced the rear of the suit and had to walk backwards so that the creature's knee joints would bend in a "not-human" fashion when it walked. Several actors performed the drones, working in shifts, which meant each performer who did the "walking" for a Martian needed his own custom-made footwear.
Near the beginning, the parents are getting David Gardner ready for bed and start shuffling things around his bedroom. The father picks up a magazine and starts to read it. The magazine was a late '70s slick fanzine called Fantascene. That issue had an article on the making of Invaders from Mars (1953).