8-year old Josh review:
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Present day review:
For a PG-13 film, ‘Invaders From Mars’ sure did scare the bejesus out of me as an 8-year old. No exaggeration- I didn’t sleep for two nights straight, not properly for weeks. It’s like watching ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, but from the point of view of a kid.
Tobe Hooper, the occasional genius behind both the original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Poltergeist’, directs this Golan & Globus production (Cannon Films). Hooper has successfully terrified me three times, and that’s more than any other director. Realistically, this is a B movie made by an A-talent director, but too many elements work for me to discount it as just another campy, rushed Cannon Films release.
What undoubtedly works: the physical spaceship sets, decked out in ornate, Giger-like designs, which lend a sense of legitimacy to an otherwise simple production, even knowing the title evokes a dime store comic release from the 1950s (sensible, considering this is a loose remake of the original 1953 film). The Krang-like Martian creature and its minions are delightfully icky. We’ve even got a heavy dose of material to traumatize those with trypanophobia (fear of needles).
There is a bleakness to the situation, a race to make things right before the invaders really do win, which at one point seems inevitable, spoilers aside. After all, what’s more frightening at age 8 than finding out your parents, teachers, and townsfolk are being manipulated to do evil things by Martians?
These tone-setting pros ultimately outweigh the clunky battle scenes and occasionally silly dialogue.
11-year old Hunter Carson is effectively paranoid and good-hearted as the lead, although the looks the poor kid gives for horror and awe are…well, they’re just not *quite* right. His facial expressions take me out of the film at times, and when he’s doing the face, which is often, it does affect the experience.
Oscar winner Louise Fletcher sure is a nightmare as the primary antagonist Mrs. McKeltch. This of course implies there may be a MR. McKeltch. Sorry, dude. She’s playing Dolores Umbridge before it was cool.
In these modern times, I imagine most kids would shrug off the imagery from this 1986 film. However, if another one like me sees this, those parents might just have one distraught kid on their hands. This is yet Hooper horror film that ends abruptly after further terror, followed by the sweetest, most docile elevator music possible. This is a sneakily terrifying movie depending on how susceptible your imagination is.