Invaders from Mars

1986 "Their conquest has already begun. . . . He knows they’re here."
5.5| 1h40m| PG| en
Details

In this remake of the classic 50s SF tale, a boy tries to stop an invasion of his town by aliens who take over the the minds of his parents, his least-liked schoolteacher and other townspeople. With the aid of the school nurse the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Marines.

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Trailers & Clips

Also starring Hunter Carson

Reviews

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!
Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
glamour-et-voyage Literally the only thing that saves this poorly acted, horrifically directed, sloppy production is some of its sets. The alien space tunnels suck, the Winston 'aliens', which look like ugly potatoes are woefully bad. The only good sets are the ultra plastic looking house and hill sets. Even the good ones are only enjoyable if you like that sort of camp. One of the worst child actors I have ever seen in a major Hollywood production. Hooper's direction is worse than you could even imagine it could be. Watch some clips on YouTube if you're interested, don't rent or buy this abomination.
d_m_s Invaders From Mars started off pretty good as I was immediately drawn in by the style, the directing, the characters and the retro 50's-esque lighting. Overall, it started with the feel of a good 80's horror/sci fi.However, it was only enjoyable until around half way through, at which point it just got a bit dull.The script got boring, the bad acting became tiresome and the special effects and costumes got a bit silly, to the point where I wasn't sure if this was really a bad film or one trying to be bad in homage to old b-movies. Bit of a let down.
SnoopyStyle David Gardner sees a UFO crash in the woods behind his home. He tries to tell his parents (Timothy Bottoms, Laraine Newman) but they don't believe him. Then his parents and his teacher Mrs. McKeltch (Louise Fletcher) change with something on the back of their necks. The only person who believes him is the school nurse Linda Magnusson (Karen Black).The movie starts off well. The premise is a good one. It's always compelling to have a kid be the most knowledgeable and the adults not believe him. The first half has some good paranoia. Then the movie starts to deteriorate. The aliens are cheesy looking. The special effects look weak. The introduction of the military takes away all of the early goodwill. It turns a pretty good paranoid thriller into a campy B-movie cheesefest.
classicsoncall 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.