Invaders from Mars

The boy David Gardner (Hunter Carson) is the son of George Gardner (Timothy Bottoms) and Ellen Gardner (Laraine Newman). One stormy night, he sees a spaceship landing on the beach nearby his house and he tells his beloved father that promises to investigate in the morning. George goes to the spot and vanishes, and Ellen calls the police. The two officers walk to the place and also disappear. Out of the blue, George returns home emotionless and acting in a strange way, and David notes a cut on his back neck. David goes to school and learns that the aliens are somehow controlling earthlings including his teacher Mrs. McKeltch (Louise Fletcher). He goes to the infirmary and the nurse Linda Magnusson (Karen Black) asks him to tell what is happening. After the interview, she sees evidences that David is scared and telling the truth. What can they do to avoid the invasion?

"Invaders from Mars" is a good remake of the classic 1953 sci-fi film. The original movie was made a couple of years after the end of WWII when the army was the symbol of defense of the country. Tobe Hooper introduced more humor in the story and the result is very entertaining. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Invasores de Marte" ("Invaders from Mars")

Note: On 31 July 2022, I saw this film again.

Title: Invaders from Mars (1986)

Director: Tobe Hooper (the man!)

Cast: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, James Karen

Review: Tobe Hoopers resume includes many great films (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lifeforce, Poltergeist)...and many so-so ones (Spontanious Combustion, The Mangler). Invaders from Mars the re-make of the original alien invasion flick from the 1950's is one of his good ones. Not great, just good.

Early on in the film an alien spaceship crashes in David Gardners back yard, slowly but surely everyone in town starts acting weird...soon David must be the one responsible for stopping the aliens from conquering his home town...and maybe the world! This movie is a remake of the 1950 original, and just by the simplicity of the story you can tell that. It has that simple, light hearted, almost innocent feel that the movies had back in those days. But Hooper adds his only brand of weirdness and surrealism to the film that makes it feel like its some sort of nightmare you might have had while falling asleep watching midnight alien invasion films on your TV. Its the type of movie in which people start acting not quite themselves and you get that " something is wrong here" vibe going on, not unlike Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The aliens look great thanks to Stan Winstons always excellent work. But I must admit they do seem kind of harmless. They don't seem like they could be a threat. I mean yeah they got huge gaping mouths with rows upon rows of teeth...but they feel dumb and stupid. For example they have these big ass laser guns attached to their noggins...but they get overtaken by the us army in the blink of an eye? Still, they look cool. Specially their leader who looks like a huge giant brain that comes out of a slimy worm-whole type of thing. If you ask me he also looks pretty harmless....but who cares! They are supposed to be evil! And they are trying to take over earth! Kill them! The sets are awesome, the interior of the the ship is great looking, it kind of has an organic look and feel to it. But it always beats the hell out of me why aliens from mars would have disco lights inside of their ship. You kind of get the feeling that at any moment an alien DJ is going to pop up and spin a couple of cool tunes on his two turn tables and a microphone. Anyhows, the over all effect looked cool so I ain't complaining.

Obviously production values ain't the real problem with this flick. Its sets and creatures are awesome looking.

The acting is what hurts this film a bit. Karen Black and the Kid just didn't do it for me in certain scenes. The kid sucked as an actor which explains why we probably haven't seen much of him in any other movie. His dialog was to robotic. Like he just read it and blurted it out without any actual thought or preparation as to what he was supposed to be going through in the scene. Sorry dude, but facts are facts. The only actors worth mentioning are the evil teacher and James Karen as General Wilson kicking alien ass all over the place.

Invaders from Mars is the type of film you want to show your little kid brother or cousin or son if you want to start him into horror. It goes in my collection right along side other great kid friendly horror films as The Monster Squad and The Gate. Give it a shot.

Rating: 31/2 out of 5

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.

This is not a movie to be viewed from a serious perspective. But even sci-fi aficionados seem to have been losing their sense of fun over the years, which may be why this remake has been panned so badly. The whole movie is viewed from a young boy's dark imagination, right down to the ridiculous Mr. Potato head aliens. Even the camera angles are taken from child's height. And within the bizarre dream world of adolescent fears and disempowerment springs forth a really fun movie. Within this context, the remake of Invaders from mars remains true to the 1950's genre with some tongue in cheek. Relax, grab some popcorn, and warp back to the 50's, when your imagination didn't have to be fed with a spoon.

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.