Hitchcoc We are in the middle of the cold war. The commies are lurking around every corner. Once again we are treated to aliens who have as their agenda, subduing us and turning us into their chattel. A boy sees a space ship land from his bedroom window. When his parents go to investigate they are changed. They also have injuries to their necks. As with "Invasion of the Body Snatcher" he must find someone to believe him. He goes through a convoluted process to try to work out a way to stop what is going on. While the ending is a bit formula there is a kicker. It is an engaging, fun film with lots of questions to be answered. Much more than I expected from the time.

Coventry I'm a tremendously big fan of fifties Sci-Fi movies and, even though I don't rank this "Invaders from Mars" among my decade's favorites (probably not even in the top 10), I most certainly do reckon its value and importance for the Sci-Fi genre in general. I think we cannot even estimate how influential – and quintessential – this motion picture from William Cameron Menzies has been, and still is, for the genre. To name just one example, for as long as I can remember, even in kindergarten school already, the image of extraterrestrial beings that got planted in my head was that of an odd-looking green creature with large heads and evil penetrating eyes. I daresay that this alien prototype largely originates from "Invaders from Mars", and perhaps one or two other contemporary classics, and several more basic Sci-Fi principles were still fresh and innovative back in 1953, like the rural "backdoor" of America setting and the aliens' mind-controlling techniques. As said, I personally prefer other fifties genre milestones over "Invaders from Mars", most notably the rawer and disturbing ones like "War of the Worlds", "Forbidden Planet", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "The Thing from Another World", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", etc etc… And yet, from many viewpoints "Invaders from Mars" is quite mature and intense despite the lead protagonist being a young boy and the climax being a complete letdown. During a stormy night, the young astrology-obsessed David MacLean witness how a flying saucer lands over the sand hills behind his parental house. David's parents naturally don't believe his grotesque story but they are the first ones to sink into an eerie sandpit and return as robotic and cold- hearted minions. Several more people are lured to the sandpit behind the MacLean's house and, especially from the little wound in the back of all their necks, David quickly concludes that they have brainwashed by the aliens that landed in the saucer. As more and more sandpit visitors begin to behave strangely and freak accidents occur all over town, David finally receives support from a friendly female physician and an immense military counter-action gradually unfolds itself in David's backyard and underneath the ground. The first half of the film is compelling and tense, what with David being pushed around and even menaced by the town's authority figures, or the eerie sub plot about the little neighbor girl Kathy who set her house on fire! The second half is more dull and routine, even though it's only by then that the green Martians appear on screen, and the underground battles seem to take forever. One of the reasons why I found "Invaders from Mars" disappointing is the random and over-excessive use of military stock footage. There are far too many repetitive shots of bomb explosions and massive tanks firing even though it's made quite clear that they don't have anything to nuke or shoot at, since the aliens are under the ground! I like the Martians' green rubber suits & masks a lot and particularly their "leader" – basically a surly silver head with tentacles attached to it, and living in a fish bowl – is a highlight of creative fifties' Sci-Fi imagination, but you can hardly refer to them as frightening or even remotely unsettling. The climax is annoying but I've grown to accept this kind of end twists, especially when the pivot characters are children. I'm glad to have seen "Invaders from Mars" for its historical relevance and because it contains some really atmospheric filming location and sound recordings, but I can easily name two dozen of Sci-Fi movies from the fifties era that better and yet more obscure.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It's little David MacLean, Jimmy Hunt, who discovers with his high powered telescope that the Earth is being invaded by Men from Mars in practically his own back yard. That's when he spots a flying saucer land and borrow it's way underground not far from his home. At first not believed by his dad aeronautical engineer George MacLean, Leif Ericson, by him checking the landing site he himself disappears and later shows up at home acting as if he's been lobotomized! Soon a number of people in the area including David's mom Mary MacLean, Hillary Brooke, end up the same way like her now zombie like husband totally detached from reality as well as the human race.As the shocking truth comes to the surface it's a spaceship full of Martians lead by their leader, the guy with his head in a fishbowl, played by Luce Potter are planning to prevent the construction of a space ship that George MacLean is working on to be complete! They don't want anyone being able to travel to Mars like they can travel to the Earth and mess up their ecological system. It's the US Army that is summoned to stop the Martians before they can do any more damage.With Col. Fielding played by the "Eternal Colonel" himself Morris Ankum in charge to stop this invasion from Mars he unloads all the firepower he has at his disposal at the Martians who's underground hideout easily withstands. Taking the fight to the Martians to their own tuft in the underground hideout that they, with laser technology, made for themselves seems to backfire by Col. Feilding and his men not realizing how dangerous and unstable the Martians' laser ray machine is in the wrong hands: themselves! And with that Col. Fielding has set off a number of events that may well end up killing everyone within a 10 mile radius! ***SPOILERS*** There is a happy ending here but not one you would expect. Little David and his parents together with all the people in the movie who've been turned into brain numbed zombies are back to normal again but were not that sure that they'll stay that way. Like a repeating nightmare it, the movie, seems to go on forever but only for David who's the only one in the cast that's fully conscious of it!

david-sarkies This movie follows along the same theme as It Conquered the World. The aliens land and begin to kidnap people and implant devices in them to serve their evil purposes. Only a kid believes and all of the people he speaks to, those in authority, have been controlled. It is not until he speaks to the doctor that she believes him and things begin to happen.Basically the martians are concerned that the Earth is getting too aggressive, especially when they launch satellites that contain missiles that can destroy any target on the Earth. The martians feel threatened so they decide to act first and put an end to this project. They tunnel into the sand and begin taking people in authority and implanting them so that they might stop the work on the rockets.This has two angles, that of the invisible communist takeover, and this movie was made in 1953 during the second HUAC hearings in Hollywood, and also a reaction to increased military spending and weapon development. The martians are threatened by the Earth's ability to launch rockets into space, and this is a feeling that is of concern to us, as it intensifies the cold war and brings the threat of nuclear war ever closer. Launching satellites to fire missiles intensifies the arms race and this is what the movie is drawing out.It more deals with the enemy's reaction to this arms race. They are not saying it is evil, and do not make a moral stance at the end. Instead we have the invisible enemy trying to undermine this. The enemy takes the form of aliens, though it is communism that it is replicating. The enemy uses converted people to perform its operations outside of its land, thus increasing the paranoia. We don't know who is a friend or an enemy, it could be anybody.In the spaceship we see the enemy. It is a head that controls automatons. This possibly also represents communism as everybody in such a nation has no free will. The head is that which rules (Josef Stalin) and everybody else is just his implements. There is not culture, nor free thought within such a state.Invaders from Mars is a fun little movie. As my house mate says, it gets straight into the action and does not bandy around, as many movies seem to do now. Still, it is a little long towards the end, but it is a great example of subtle anti-communist movies.