SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Absolutely brilliant

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

One of the most memorable SF films from the 50s. For anyone who was a kid in the 50s or 60s, just say "the movie where people are sucked into the sand", and everyone instantly knows which movie you mean. Those scenes are unforgettable, as are the scenes of the Martian Intelligence, and the image of the nurse about to receive the mind control device. And that haunting, otherworldly choral sound! Probably the most brilliantly eerie vocal sound ever made for a movie. Unfortunately, many people won't be able to look past the low budget 50s production values, but there's some great work here. William Cameron Menzies was a genius at production design. Check out the nightmarish forced perspective of the path leading to the sand pit, and the police station. A must see.

Today's kids would probably toss this in with Plan 9 as a "so bad it's good" production but for those who were able to experience this when they were young and still possessed an active imagination but limited science knowledge it was a knock-out.The Red Scare theme didn't mean a thing to me then, but the sand-pit sinkings, the shambling mutants and - most of all - that monstrosity in the glass ball kept me absolutely entranced. I'm guessing that even adults could have appreciated the tension as well.I pull this out every couple of years, and though the acting, the science and the interminable stock footage leave me underwhelmed I still think that head and wavy, withered arms is downright creepy.

*Spoiler/plot- Invaders from Mars, 1953. An overactive 10 years old boy's imagination and dreams take over his waking hours with seeing a flying saucer landing in a vacant lot near his house. The town leaders and military experts need convincing and help in the end. *Special Stars- Arthur Franz, Helena Carter, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Milburn Stone, Barbara Billingsley, Robert Shayne.*Theme- The Govt is your friend, not the Martians.*Trivia/location/goofs- Color. Richard (Dick Van Dyke Show) Deacon's first film. Look for zippers on the backs of the mutant's green velor costumes. *Emotion- One of the earliest 50's sci-fi thrillers with a scary ending, so be sure to see the whole film. This film gave plenty of impressionable kids nightmares and time hiding in their rooms. The remakes of this film are terrible.*Based On- The Cold War invasion and rocket exploration fears.

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.