Invaders from Mars. 1986. USA. Directed by Tobe Hooper. With Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms. 35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. 110 min.
When a spaceship full of body-snatching aliens lands in his backyard, taking possession of his parents, young stargazer David Gardner sets out to alert his teachers and mobilize the local military. After the decidedly “adult” view of humanity’s destruction offered in Lifeforce, Hooper’s remake of William Cameron Menzies’s low-budget 1958 classic Invaders from Mars takes the form of a child’s nightmare. The director’s taste for brilliant colors, flashy special effects, and expressive production design, combined with the film’s grotesque but notably inept Martian creatures, effectively evoke the ’50s sci-fi aesthetic. Cinematographer Daniel Pearl’s mobile camera and Hooper’s fluid direction in the first half of the film give way to frantic, if not especially well-staged, action sequences. Channeling Reagan-era fear and paranoia for the fun of it, the film’s campy script is delivered by a game cast of 1980s-vintage genre actors.