Les Envahisseurs de la planète rouge

After reading many of the comments regarding this movie, I am somewhat amused to see how many have forgotten that there was life before CGI computer effects.

"Invaders From Mars" is still potent in the most valuable way, and that's imagination. The storyline, which owes a great deal to "The Wizard of Oz" in it's final moments, has deep psychological effects which still resonate today. If it wasn't so effective, people wouldn't still be discussing it after nearly fifty years.

CGI effects have dumbed down movies to nothing more than computer-effects orgies, relying on a "gee-whiz" factor that ultimately comes up empty in more than a few cases (the big-budget "Godzilla" leaps quickly to mind here). IFM was originally set to be a 3-D movie, which was ultimately scrapped for budgetary concerns. William Cameron Menzies, the director, used the original sets which had been designed to force perspective. The resulting film, which throws the objectivity to a child's point of view has fascinated viewers for years. Menzies did the best with what he could afford, and the visual results are still gripping even today. Yes, the film has it's flaws, but we need to consider the making of IFM in its historical context. Menzies was an Oscar-winning art director (for "Gone With the Wind", no less). Also consider his work on "Thief of Bagdad" with Sabu, one of the most beautiful color films ever made. IFM shows the same visual excitement (referred to by some viewers as "garish"), but rising above it's badly slashed budget to gain a foothold in popular memory.

It's sad to think that the work of a real artist will be dismissed simply because he worked in an era where technology hadn't swallowed vision.

Acceptable , estimable and well-made science-fiction/suspense/thriller in which a kid and military are confronted by an alien invasion . This film , nowadays , has achieved cult stature and with the passing of the years has attained rave reviews . A boy named David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) tries to stop aliens that came from above and attack from below . As the aliens have taken over his town and are attempting to brainwash its inhabitants . As his parents (Hilary Brooke , Leif Erickson) are zapped by the weird and diabolic creatures . He can't convince the townspeople of this invasion because they've already possessed by the outer beings . As the people fall into a sandpit where martian slaves carry on their fiendish work guided by a malicious mastermind . As David is only helped by Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz , also narrator) and the sympathetic Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter) . Later on , the boy enlists the aid of Col. Fielding (Morris Ankrum) and his U.S. Marines . The soldiers go under the surface where the Marines encounter extraterrestrials in the tunnels , leading to the powerful alien leader .

The earlier first version loosely based on a story by John Battle results to be a potent lesson how to direct a film in low budget and it holds a subtle but efficient intrigue . Gradual as well as notable built-up suspense is quite superb as when the aliens are shown largely at the ending and to create a real menace . This exciting film packs chills , thrills , guessing , paranoia , absence of all characterization and spectacular FX by that time , though today dated . In fact , the sandpit opening and closing was done by cutting a long slit in a piece of heavy canvas and inserting a large funnel . And including stock footage , as it shows tanks being loaded onto train flatcars that were actually WW2 M10 tank destroyers and by the time of this film were superseded by newer models . Chilling tale of an alien invasion , this is a nice thriller/SciFi in its own right , dealing with a saucer descends on earth and takes over human beings when they fall into a sandpit . The story is told from the view point of a kid , including a surprising and unexpected finale . Several actors performed the slaves , working in shifts , which meant each performer who did the "walking" for a Martian needed his own custom-made footwear . It is one of the best of the Cold War allegories and a lot of filmmakers cited the movie as a key , influential film in their lives . Colorful cinematography by John Seitz in garish Cinecolor that gives the movie a distinctive , almost muddy look appropriate in particular to the strange underground atmosphere . This motion picture (1953) was well directed by William Cameron Menzies who shows real skill in the way that everyday things are made to carry a sense of menace . Cameron was one of the best production designers of film history and directed a few movies , such as : ¨The Maze¨ , ¨The Whip Hand¨ , ¨Drums in the Deep South¨ ,¨The Green Cockatoo¨ , ¨Thief of Bagdad¨ , and another classic Sci-Fi : ¨Things to come¨ . In ¨Invaders from Mars¨ Menzies provides a punchy suspenseful Sci-Fi in green-and-gold color about some unwelcome aliens . Although it aroused no great attention in its day and despite its commercial and critical failure , it has become a cult classic .

This oddball vintage 50s SF tale is remade 33 years later with similar plot , as a Martian invasion perceived only by one young boy , being directed by Tobe Hooper again with Jimmy Hunt , who played young David MacLean in the original and the police chief in this remake , and Hunter Carson who is the real life son of Karen Black who plays a hysterical school nurse , Timothy Bottoms , Laraine Newman , James Karen , Bud Cort , Louise Fletcher , Eric Pierpoint . This second high-tech outing pays homage to the first retelling but being really inferior to precedent .

Invaders From Mars is one of the best science fiction movies of the 1950's. I have seen this several times and never tire of it.

A haunting atmosphere throughout and a good musical score keep it going. It is shot in glorious colour and the special effects are pretty good despite the low budget.

The acting in this is excellent, especially from young Jimmy Hunt and 50's regulars Arthur Franz and Morris Ankrum are reunited in this as they starred alongside each other in Flight to Mars (1951). Extensive stock military footage doesn't spoil this at all.

I enjoyed this movie very much and it has gained a cult following.

Rating: 4 and a half stars out of 5.

I was only a year old when this movie came out, but I saw it on TV when I was around 8 years old, and it made a deep impression on me. In fact, when they brought out that long needle, my sister and I hid behind the couch and screamed for our mother to come turn off the TV! As a result, I did not know how the movie ended until I saw it again as a teenager. The special effects may seem cheesy to the jaded audiences of today, but they were effective enough to give me nightmares for years. (In one dream I am being carried by my own mother, who is walking stiffly, with a fixed smile.) I believe what makes it work is that the entire film is seen from the point of view of the boy. The director capitalizes on the insecurity of young children, and the way they relate to the world around them. All the best horror and science fiction movies succeed not because of CGI, costumes, rubber prostheses and fake blood, but because they focus on basic human fears and insecurities.

This one scared the hell out of me when I first saw it as a kid; I remember them showing it in the evening on BBC2 back in the 1980s. Looks like a lot of other reviewers were similarly traumatised. Watching it now, as an adult, it's easy to laugh at what is a shoddy, low budget production. Scenes are repeated, special effects are wobbly to say the least, the aliens are silly rather than menacing, and the paucity of the production is apparent in every respect.

And yet...there's something oddly menacing about this film. It's partly the Cold War paranoia-inspired plot about nice, ordinary people being taken over by a sinister foreign menace. Interestingly, this is the earliest version I've seen on that theme, predating INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS by a couple of years. The paranoia is cloying and really raises the hackles, even as an adult, and even allowing for the cheesy over-acting of the child star.

The more overt aspects of the story, which take place towards the climax, are also profound, and in this case the imaginative nature of the production outweighs the budgetary constraints. That alien leader, little more than a head in a goldfish bowl, is oddly disturbing and an image that's stayed with me for my whole life. It's easy to forgive the problems in a film like INVADERS FROM MARS when it contains such classic, timeless material and I do think this is one of those '50s-era B-movie alien invasion classics.