Invaders from Mars (1986)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

A Masterpiece!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Ah the classic 1953 movie revisited and remade in that classic 80's style with wacky special effects. This really is a treasure chest of 80's gold through and through. Directed by Tobe 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' Hooper, written by Dan 'Alien' O'Bannon and with creature effects by Stan Winston, John 'Star Wars' Dykstra and Alec 'Aliens' Gillis. Doesn't get much better than that folks.The plot is surprisingly almost identical to the original classic albeit with a few minor changes here and there. One night during a storm a young boy sees a UFO land in an area behind his house (the sandpit?). He tells his parents but of course they don't believe him telling him it was a nightmare. The next day his father investigates and eventually returns with strange marks on the back of his neck, his mannerisms are odd and he seems emotionless and cold. Slowly many townsfolk start acting the same so the young boy tries to alert the authorities but has a hard time making folk believe naturally. Soon enough his school nurse starts to take notice and believe the boy and in time they manage to get the military on board to lay siege to the mysterious sand pit area.As I already said I was shocked at how faithful this remake is to the source material, it is virtually the same right down to the visual setup. Now this might sound lame (especially with this current horrendous remake trend) but if you've seen the 1953 version its quite cool to see the same stylings revamped (without the use of CGI I might add). The little pathway and hill leading to the sandpit behind the young boys house has been recreated to look just like the original film and it looks splendidly creepy. The alien ship interior is basically along the same kind of lines but obviously much more futuristic (for the time) and of course all the characters are almost identical, although some characters have different job roles here. It was also sweet to see the original lead boy actor from the 1953 version play the police chief in this movie.The major changes come in the visual effects department for the aliens and obvious things like the spaceship, makeup and a few minor horror moments. You can easily tell the rubbery monster/alien suits are Stan Winston's work, I can tell his creative style a mile away. The main head alien, the brain, was literately that...a fat pink brain that basically looks like Krang from the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' franchise. I believe this design did actually surface before the introduction of Krang in the animated TMNT series in 1987, so maybe this movie influenced that cartoon? Anyway this powerful double pupiled alien really looks tremendous if a little motionless. The other mobile aliens (if you can say that) are quite bizarre, honesty I don't know why they went with this design but they basically look like giant testicles with huge gaping jaws and four legs. Huge lumps of gristle with huge mouths lined with razor sharp teeth and four camel-like legs. Clearly very large and heavy rubber suits with the two front legs being for the performer inside and the rear two probably mainly being stability. Its very clever how they have done it but alas these aliens do look totally cumbersome, not very agile...not very mobile at all really and completely useless in an evolutionary sense. How on earth these aliens managed to build spaceships or develop technology I don't know, there must be other types of alien that helped them.One thing that does stand out was the bad acting which seemed strange to me seeing as this felt like a biggish production. Yeah sure this is meant to be a science fiction B-movie of course so possibly the cast acted badly on purpose? I kinda doubt it honesty, maybe some did but most I think were just poor, especially the main protagonist, the young boy. This kid really couldn't act, it was quite painful at times. He was also kinda tubby and clearly had trouble running too *giggles*, the amount of times he's running away from someone and its laughable, so slow! I guess when one of the main leads from the first two 'Return of the Living Dead' movies (James Karen) is in the film, you should know to expect some grilled cheese. But honesty no one here is very good, there is lots of hokey shouting, screaming and really obviously slow running away from dangerous things.Of course the finale won't be much of a surprise if you've seen the original film because this ends the same way. In fact it ends exactly the same accept for the cliffhanger moment before the credits role where all we see is the young boy rushing to his parents room, stopping and screaming in terror. Its a typical 80's finish, the kinda thing you'd see in an 80's horror anthology movie, its left to your imagination...and nightmares.The tension does seem to have gone from this newer version, I kinda expected it to be a trashy 80's gore fest, the movie poster does lend itself to that. On the other hand I did think it could of been a John Carpenter flick at times, if you didn't know any better it could seem that way, it has those dark comedic tones much like 'They Live'. On the whole its certainly a blast if you're into practical hands-on effects with larger than life creature suits and prosthetics but don't expect many thrills or blood. Considering the director its actually relatively tame.6/10

I'm not a fan of remakes, not at all. I don't see why films that were good in the first place need to be 'updated'. Perhaps a bad film with a nice idea would be worthy but most remakes, especially these days are just cashing in on the success of the original and usually doing a bad job to boot.Invaders From Mars is one of the most famous of the Classic 50's sci-fi films along with Forbidden Planet and War Of The Worlds. It's certainly the most disturbing of the era with paranoia and fear seen from a child's perspective along with some memorable imagery!The big surprise about this remake is that it's actually good. Really good in fact! Of course it's not perfect but it set out to do a task and in my eyes succeeded!I think one of the best things about the film is how it looks. The locations and sets are fantastic, the set of the alien space ship interior and tunnels are superb as are the locations such as the sand pit. This is all the more baffling when you consider that it's made by Canon, a company famous for uber cheap budgets and cutting corners but it certainly doesn't have that feel here. Being made in the 80's the film has that certain warmth to its feel that seemed to be present in films of that era. There is a remarkably strong Spielberg vibe to the whole film mixed in with a good does of John Carpenter from around the same era. Tobe Hooper does a great job with plenty of nice sweeping wide angles crossed with claustrophobic horror type shots and situations and some nice recreation of the iconic scenes of the 50's original such as the fence going over the hill. There are also plenty of snippets of trivia from the original film hidden here and there throughout the film which is a great tribute and obviously shows the film was made with love.Of course it's not perfect, the acting is hammy in parts which sort of ups the cheese value a little but on the whole it's pretty average and doesn't stray much into 'cringe' territory.A special mention and combined criticism must go to the Martian creatures themselves. Stan Winston's workshop created these beasts and although superbly made and animated they seems to not know whether to be scary or goofy, looking formidable with their huge teeth and grunts one might be scared stiff if they didn't look like a giant testicle from the side on.These are minor flaws though in a film that has so obviously been made with a passion for the subject.I love both versions of this film and I honestly think that more people should give it the credit that it is due!

Tobe Hooper's elaborate, bigger budgeted 80s remake of the 1953 science fiction classic does have scale going for it, as well as a see-it-to-believe-it cast and talented crew. Scripted by Dan O'Bannon & Don Jakoby, it tells the story of David Gardner (Hunter Carson), ordinary kid who witnesses first hand the invasion of evil Martian creatures which proceed to enslave lots of local humans, Davids' own parents (Timothy Bottoms and Laraine Newman) among them.The problem, at least for this viewer, is that this doesn't have the stark nightmarish quality of the original, and is also often too silly for its own good, going for a camp quality, in terms of both acting and dialogue. Depending on ones' sensibilities, they can either appreciate or groan at lines such as "You'd better hurry, or you just might blow it." and "You don't carry loose change into combat, sir.". We also have the parents acting all goofy and eating either meat that's been overcooked or not cooked at all.Yet, moments like this contrast with some pretty good sequences such as seeing how the humans get their minds manipulated or when the tunnelling devices emerge from underneath the ground. The sets are quality stuff, what with people like Leslie Dilley ("Star Wars") as production designer and Craig Stearns ("Halloween" '78) as art director. The special effects are amusing, to say the least, with Stan Winston and crew crafting some memorable "Mr. Potato Head" aliens as well as a Martian intelligence that is actually kind of a cute lil' thing.The actors are mostly all pros (with the exception of Carson, the real-life son of co-star Karen Black) and some of them do a pretty fine job of maintaining poker faces. In addition to those actors mentioned, we've got Ms. Black doing an appealing job as the school nurse, Louise Fletcher playing her umpteenth Nurse Ratched like role as the miserly frog eating teacher, Bud Cort as a nerdy young S.E.T.I. scientist, the great James Karen of "The Return of the Living Dead" as an ass kicking, cigar chomping Marine general, Jimmy Hunt (who played the kid in the 1953 film) as the police chief, and veteran military technical adviser Dale Dye in a bit.One good thing about "Invaders from Mars" '86 is that it's never boring, and it does have nice touches here and there (the bit with the copper, the cameo by the original Martian Intelligence), and it's at least pretty true to the first film when it comes to the resolution. It's best recommended to undemanding fans of 80s genre fare.Six out of 10.

I really have to pay more attention to what I'm doing. I thought I was making a request for the original "Invaders From Mars" through my local library system and wound up with this 1986 remake. Still, the DVD cover looked pretty cool with it's colorful, Fifties styled artwork so I figured I might as well give it a shot. Because my impression was now established that it was going to be a campy remake, I kept looking for the humor in it but it just kept taking itself more seriously than it needed to. Then, once the film made it's way to the alien cave with it's flashing disco lights and outlandish space creatures, it ceased being a serious sci-fi film for me and simply entered the theater of the absurd. So it didn't surprise me too much when it came time for the finale to reveal that it was all just the kid's (Hunter Carson) dream. Maybe that's what redeemed the picture somewhat for me, because now we're simply dealing with the kid's imagination. That's something I was able to relate to well enough, because when I was a kid, I was the only one in the whole family who knew there was a gorilla up in the attic.