Following the failure of Lifeforce (at least commercially, I'm on the side of it being an interesting affair), Tobe Hooper turned to a remake of 1953's Invaders from Mars. After several writers took a shot at the script, Dan O'Bannon (the USC film student who famously created Dark Star with John Carpenter, left for Europe in the hopes of making Dune with Alejandro Jodorowsky, then came back to the U.S. to write Alien, Dead & Buried and Total Recall, write and direct Return of the Living Dead and then die way too young from Crohn's Disease) and Don Jakoby.Instead of the adult oriented gore and sex that Lifeforce presented (which shows up here as a movie within a movie, main character David is watching the film and man, he's super young for that movie), Invaders is a return to the themes of 1950's science fiction. That said — whereas the originally intended directed Steven Spielberg would have focused on the sweetness with a slight edge, Hooper delivers plenty of edge. In fact, this entire film feels like a nightmare that the main character, David Garden (Hunter Carson, the son of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 writer LM Kit Carson and Karen Black, who we'll get to in a minute) can't wake up from. It's unnerving the sheer torture that this kid goes through!After watching a meteor shower, David sees a spaceship land behind his house. Throughout the film, the entire town gets taken over by aliens, including his parents (Timothy Bottoms and SNL's Laraine Newman). It's true terror — what child doesn't have the fear that his parents will no longer love him? It's even worse when they coldly plot your doom.They're not the only ones — every teacher is against him, none more than the meanest teacher in school, Mrs. McKeltch. She's gone from that to something much, much worse — the human face of the alien invasion.Read more at www.bandsaboutmovies.com

It's hard to believe that in 1986 the world was treated to James Cameron's 'Aliens.' Not only was it an awesome sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Alien' movie, but it also set the trend for female role models in science fiction forever. But then you probably already know this. However, what you might not know is that 'Invaders From Mars' was also released that year. It too had a female lead, but it's unlikely that she'll be remembered in such ground-breaking terms as our flamethrower-wielding space lieutenant. She spends her time screaming, getting into trouble and generally being one of the worst representations of women on the big screen since 'Willie' from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.' But, I'm getting ahead of myself. She's just one part of a much bigger problem.It's always brave of film-makers to produce a film which has a child as the main star, especially if the film isn't really aimed at children to begin with. In fact, it's actually quite hard to see who this film is aimed at. Part of it feels like it should be some PG children's film about a plucky young scamp, accidentally stumbling across an alien plot and then foiling it in a light-hearted manner (think 'The Explorers' in style, but with more tension). However, it then comes across as quite a lot darker in tone, making it almost seem like a horror movie, but without too much gore. As I say, the star is a – very annoying – young boy with an awful haircut (even by eighties standards!) whose home town comes under attack from aliens who take over his parents (amongst others). He therefore runs around shrieking the whole time in an attempt to get people to believe what's happening. Yet, no matter how annoying he comes across, he's still better than the female lead (his teacher) who he constantly has to tell what to do.The reason I watched this film (besides my natural love of sci-fi and eighties cheese-fests) was because of the aliens from Mars. If you look at any advertising relating to this film you'll see that they're featured heavily. And there's a reason – they're the only decent thing in this movie. The monsters really are pretty special for practical/non-CGI effects. It's just a shame that it feels like the whole film's budget has gone on them and they're only it in for a handful of scenes.Okay, so you can probably tell I'm not a massive fan of the film, but – from a personal point of view – the aliens weren't just the only good thing about the film. Eventually, the boy enlists the help of the military to help out and, for once, they're surprisingly competent. Not only that, but James Karen (most famous from his roles in the first two 'Return of the Living Dead' films) also pops up as the general and – as always – he's a treat to watch.The ending was sort of okay too, but it was too little too late. The two leads are possibly some of the most annoying characters ever committed to screen and the cool practical effects just don't warrant sitting down to watch this one.

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.

I watched this, and whilst I admit some of the special effects were good, I felt there were some parts of the film that could have been a lot better as it digressed too far from the original story in places.The dialogue and some of the acting was corny. The aliens looked too far fetched, the head martian looked like a cross between something out of star wars and war of the worlds. Whilst the more 'lowly' martians looked out of place as again a cross between the war of the worlds aliens (1950's original) only with teeth! A bit over exaggerated I thought, especially where one of the aliens appears to be 'laughing' after his counterpart eats the school teacher! Speaking of which, I thought the scene of her eating a frog, had no real importance or relevance in the film for that matter.One of those films to watch once, and forget!!