Directed by:
William Cameron MenziesScreenplay:
Richard BlakeCinematography:
John F. SeitzCast:
Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Helena Carter, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Barbara Billingsley, John Eldredge, Richard Deacon, Bert Freed (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
One night, young David McLean sees a spaceship crash into a nearby sandpit. His father goes to investigate, but comes back changed. Where once he was cheerful and affectionate, he's now sullen and snarlingly rude. Others fall into the sandpit and begin acting like him: cold, ill-tempered and conspiratorial. David knows that aliens are taking over the bodies of humans, but he'll soon discover there have been far more of these terrible thefts than he could have imagined. The young doom-monger finds some serious help in a lady doctor and a brilliant astronomer. Soon they meet the aliens: green creatures with insect-like eyes. These beings prove to be slaves to their leader: a large, silent head with ceaselessly shifting eyes and two tentacles on either side, each of which branches off into three smaller tentacles. It's up to the redoubtable earth trio to stop its evil plans. (Ignite Films)
(more)Reviews (3)
The beginning is absolutely fantastic because it beautifully shows how danger can actually lurk anywhere, and that anyone can be attacked. The second half isn't as excellent, but still, the more positive impressions prevail. A beautiful example of what was being filmed in the 1950s, especially in this case, in color. B-movie sci-fi about body snatchers is just a fantastic theme.
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A film that fits beautifully into the 1950s, a time that was a boom for B-movie science fiction, full of evil aliens. In this case, there is no frontal attack by the green men; rather, the theme of alien infiltration (as in the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is developed by means of a device implanted in the brain of human victims. The story is told from the point of view of a boy who one night sees a flying saucer land out of his window and burrow under the ground. The boy's parents go to the landing site to check it out, sink into the ground (to the alien scum's base) and, with the help of a probe implanted in their brains, are remotely controlled to do mischief. The boy figures it all out and with the help of a scientist (who believes the boy) he manages to mobilize an army to take action against the alien invaders. The aliens are not seen at all for most of the film, only in the last third do they show themselves in all their glory, and they look quite funny. They are dressed in a kind of overalls, have three fingers and bulging eye flaps with slits. Their leader resides in a fishbowl, just a large bulging silver-plated head with arms from which grow two tentacles. The film has two endings, the version for the European market ends with the destruction of the aliens, while the American version ends with the boy dreaming and waking up to see the flying saucer landing out the window again, this time as if in reality. I watched the American one.
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A fantastic and markedly militant allegory of the Cold War which, for some, may be excessively literal at times. Invaders from Mars is at a very neat technological level (imaginative and colourful stage set combined with brilliant camera work by John F. Seitz), but the alien design is plain funny – especially when they run. Otherwise, it’s a rather chilling flick, and, if seen by a child, an outright horror movie. One big regret: that the creators chose a fairytaly-safe way to end the story.
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