Julian R. White I picked this movie up on VHS when I was like 10 at a pawn shop, and honestly, it was a good investment. This movie, for its time, can really instill a sense of fear of the unknown, the sound you hear when someone is abducted by the martians, and the sense of paranoia you have against your loved ones. This probably was another political propaganda film to instill negative views on communists, but that's another story. I find the design of the "perfect Martian" to be pretty neat too, and was surprised when I realized they used the same concept of "Mutants" from the film "This Island Earth". It's a good movie, I've seen it a few times, always a good late night alien flick!

Jackson Booth-Millard In recent years I have made an effort to find and watch classic films that evoke the time period in which they were made, this is a very good example of one such film, directed by William Cameron Menzies (Things to Come). Basically one night young David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) is awakened by a thunderstorm, then a strange light appears, from his bedroom window he sees a large flying saucer descend and disappear into the sandpit area behind the house. His scientist father George (Leif Erickson) knows that his son is not the sort of child to make up things, so he investigates, when he returns the next morning David notices a strange red puncture on the back of his neck, and his father behaves cold and hostile. David soon realises that something is wrong, he notices certain townspeople with the same mark on the back of their neck and acting the same sort of way, then he witnesses his child neighbour Kathy Wilson (Janine Perreau) disappearing underground walking in the sandpit, she later returns with hardly any emotion at all. David flees to the police station for help, he is placed under the protection of health-department physician Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter), who slowly begins to believe his crazy story, and taking David to local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz), he confirms with the boy and Dr. Blake that there is likely to be an upcoming invasion from the planet Mars. Dr. Kelston convinces the U.S. Army to investigate immediately, and soon enough the Pentagon assembles troops and tanks, command by Colonel Fielding (Morris Ankrum). David and Dr. Blake near the sandpit are suddenly sucked underground, two tall slit-eyed green humanoids have captured them, but Colonel Fielding and some troops find the entrance to the flying saucer. Inside they confront the Martian mastermind: a giant green head with a humanoid face atop a small, green partial torso with several green arm-tentacles, encased in a transparent sphere, it is served by tall, green, silent mutants. The human victims taken have been implanted with mind-control devices, they are attempting to sabotage an atomic rocket, if they are captured the devices implode and cause a fatal cerebral haemorrhage. Dr. Blake and David are rescued, Colonel Fielding and the troops open fire at the pursuing mutants, the army plant a timed explosive charges aboard the saucer. Following a large explosion, David wakes to find himself in his bed, just like at the beginning, his parents are back to normal, he returns to bed assured that he had a nightmare, but then he goes to the window and sees the same flying saucer from his dream descending into the sandpit, it is unclear what happens next. Also starring Hillary Brooke as Mrs. Mary MacLean, Max Wagner as Sergeant Rinaldi, Milburn Stone as Captain Roth, Walter Sande as Police Desk Sergeant Finlay, John Eldredge as Mr. Turner, Robert Shayne as Dr. Bill Wilson, Luce Potter as Martian Intelligence and It's a Wonderful Life's Todd Karns as Jim the Gas Station Attendant. Over the years this film has gained a cult status, its distorted and abstract surrealistic are the big reasons, you can maybe laugh now at the ridiculous of it, especially the low-budget special effects and costumes for the alien creatures, but in a way, that is part of the appeal, and it certainly plays on the paranoia that went on at the time, it could have been less chatty and have more alien stuff, but overall it is a relatively entertaining classic science-fiction thriller. Good!

Maddyclassicfilms Invaders from Mars is directed by William Cameron Menzies, has a screenplay by Richard Blake and stars Jimmy Hunt,Arthur Franz, Helena Carter, Leif Erickson and Hillary Brooke.David MacLean(Jimmy Hunt)is awoken by a strange noise and light in the middle of the night. Looking out of his window he sees a flying saucer land near his house. He wakes up his dad(Leif Erickson)who goes and looks but doesn't come back. David's mum(Hillary Brooke)phones the police, two officers come and search and also go missing. The dad and the officers then return sometime later seemingly devoid of emotion and all bearing strange marks on the back of their necks. Later David's mother is also changed.David is convinced that aliens have done something to them and runs to the police begging them to get help. Nobody believes him except his friend the Astronomer Dr. Stuart Keltson(Arthur Franz)and Doctor Pat Blake(Helena Carter). This trio soon discover that aliens have indeed landed and must try and alert the authorities to try and stop them.This film has it's moments but too many weaknesses to make it one you'd want to watch again and again. The people controlled by aliens are very creepy(this altered behaviour precedes Invasion of the Body Snatchers by several years)and seeing the horror from the perspective of a child is quite interesting. The little girl who burns her house is very creepy(that scary smile of hers would make you run a mile in real life).There is nothing more frightening than knowing something to be true but nobody believes you and the film portrays that very well. Seeing the people being dragged beneath the sand to be altered is very creepy as it allows you to imagine all sorts of scary things. Unfortunately most of the acting is pretty bad, the seemingly endless army stock footage is unnecessary and the reveal of the alien base beneath the sand is a big disappointment, some things work better when unseen. This one has it's moments but could and should have been so much darker than it was.

dimplet This is the scariest movie I have ever seen. Perhaps that's because I saw it as a child, around the age of David. The movie is filmed from a child's point of view, and I certainly identified with it. As I watched it, I imagined what it would be like to be in David's shoes; as he was carried underground, I was carried underground. Judging from the reviews by others who saw it as a child, I am not alone. Even today, it creeps me out. But whether it would work seeing it for the first time as an adult is another story. Adults are perhaps too rational. Invaders from Mars works best when mainlined directly into the subconscious. A child still in touch with his fantasy world can do this, but can an adult? Look at the adult interpretations: It's a symbolic representation of the cold war, and the aliens are actually Communists taking over America. Having actually watched this during the Cold War in America, I can tell you this interpretation never once crossed my mind, as a child or adult. Sorry, the aliens were aliens, and the fear was of a clandestine alien invasion of Earth. This should come as no surprise to the well-informed, because there were numerous reports of UFOs in the press, complete with apparently authentic photos from the late Forties through the Fifties and Sixties. THAT is why people were afraid of UFOs, though they didn't talk much about it, and the government tried to pretend it was all an illusion of some sort or other. (It is convenient to dismiss the fear of aliens as actually a fear of Communism, though, who knows, perhaps these were Commie aliens. Or early incarnations of the Borg, which is the same thing. Resistance. Is. Futile.)Worse than that, there has been extensive discussion in recent decades of possible implants associated with nose bleeds during alien abductions, especially of children. Harvard professor John Mack, M.D., presented evidence of this, including X-ray films of implants being extracted by doctors, on a network television special in the 1990s. Actual implants were recovered and studied. So this film may have tapped into more than just some collective unconscious fear. I remember waking up with blood from a nosebleed on my pillow, and I have memories of vivid "dreams" of being abducted by aliens from my bedroom, yard, summer camp, and elsewhere. Sometimes these "dreams" left physical marks upon my body. No wonder this movie scared me so much -- and perhaps others. The cast, no offense to any still alive, is not exactly A list. But it works. So do the weird sets, the creation of the genius of William Cameron Menzies, the same Menzies of Gone With the Wind and Things to Come. Here Menzies is the director, rather than just the set designer, though presumably he did both. Spoiler alert:The brilliant move of the movie is the ending, when it turned out all that came before was a dream, but now the real nightmare was about to begin. So the surrealism of the odd perspective sets was the product of a child's subconscious dreams. But it was a dream triggered by a real fear of alien invasion that was on the minds of millions at the time, and perhaps ever since H.G. Well's War of the Worlds. For another take on aliens from a child's perspective, watch Steven Spielberg's series Taken, narrated by Dakota Fanning. The wonderful old Twilight Zone series also tapped into this vein many times, suggesting it was still a concern of people. Invaders from Mars could have been a Twilight Zone episode, and perhaps it was an inspiration and model for Rod Serling.