Invaders from Mars
                
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Year: 1953
Rating: 7.0
On social media, I often come across some person asking, "What films terrified you as a child". My list is very short. This one. Nothing else comes to mind. This film freaked me out when I saw it by myself one night on TV when I must have been about seven. I bought into it completely. I distinctly remember going down the following morning and quietly checking out the back of the necks of my parents at the breakfast table. They were clean but then I went into our backyard to be sure nothing untoward was there. This film stuck to me for days. Looking out the window at night into the sky. But this is the first time I have seen it since then and I had to check out the neck of my girlfriend afterwards. This no longer scared me but I thought it was terrific for a low-budget sci-fi film. It was easy to see why I was terrified. I came across a couple reviews from back then and most of them agreed this was too scary for children. How times have changed. We were soft back them.



Not that I recall, but my guess is that I had no clue about the subtext going on. The scares were there but there was no way that I realized what a seditious film this was for children. It basically taught us that no one can be trusted; not your parents, not the police, not authority, not the military. Everyone is suspect. Like a few other sci-fi films of the time, it is steeped in paranoia because of the Cold War - that among us were Communist agents working to defeat us. Stay vigilant. If you see something, say something. But it can also be interpreted as a warning against being brainwashed into a belief - whether religious or political. McCarthyism perhaps was its intended target. On top of all this is an anti-military build-up message - the Invaders from Mars are only on Earth because they fear Earth will invade Mars some day and have come to destroy the means to do so. I think that is all in there. Whether director William Cameron Menzies meant it, I can't say but his other great film was Things to Come which touched on some of the same ideas. Beware of authority.



I expect everyone has seen this film at some point in their life. But for those who haven't - a young boy looks out of his window one night and sees a flying saucer land in the back yard. The next morning his father (Leif Erickson) goes to take a look - and when he returns, he is a nasty bastard who hits his son.  And just stares ahead. Later, dear mom (Hillary Brooks) is led down the path by her husband and comes back like a Stepford wife. He is a smart kid and notices a metal thing that has been stuck into his father's neck. He begins raising the alarm - but the Police Captain has a metal thing in his neck - a General too - who can you trust. No one. Except the pretty nurse (Helena Carter).



Again, this was made for practically nothing - a lot of military stock footage is used, there is a much running around the same tunnels to take up time - but it was made in color which is surprising and it looks great - especially the head Martian (Luke Potter) in his glass globe with his eyes going back and forth like a pinball game and his wiggly short arms. And the giant green Martian slaves with their ray gun is kind of neat. The ending is probably what did it to me. It's a dream, no it isn't. I wonder if this would still scare children? Probably not.