Invaders from Mars

Back in 1936, director William C. Menzies had already carved out a reputation as a bona fide director of memorable classics, including the H. G. Wells adaptation of the Sci-fi movie ‘Things to Come’. With INVADERS FROM MARS (1953), Menzies once again proved to be a director whose unquestionable talent contributed to a yet another groundbreaking Sci-fi classic, in this case fusing an alien invasion with Cold War paranoia.

A landmark of science fiction cinema, ‘Invaders from Mars’ redefined the genre by adding elements of a different kind to the brew - that is to say, American audiences at the time were almost (if not more) as terrified of the Communist threat as they were of of threats stemming from a nuclear blast or indeed, an alien attack. Duck and cover!

Set in small town America (where else), it all starts innocently enough when one night, a little boy named David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt, who sadly passed away last year aged 85), is woken up by a thunderstorm. Looking out from his bedroom window into the night, he doesn’t spot lightning but… a UFO! Weirder still, the flying saucer seems to land and disappear into a sandpit close by his home, though a massive tree obstructs the sight. Alarmed and excited in equal doses, he wakes up his parents: mum Mary (Hillary Brooke) and dad George (Leif Erickson), who happens to be a scientist employed at the local government research plant where he, together with some others, works on a prototype atomic rocket. David’s parents assume that their son simply was dreaming but dad George decides to investigate all the same. When he fails to return, Mary raises the alarm and goes out looking for him, but neither she nor the police can find him.

The following morning, George unexpectedly returns home but his behaviour now is decidedly strange… he is almost hostile towards his wife and son and even smacks David across the face. Mary is at a loss as to what brought the change in her husband’s character while David suddenly notices an odd puncture on the back of George’s neck, but has no explanation as to what it could be. A short while later, the two policemen looking for George appear, they too display an almost cold manner, seemingly without any emotions. And they too bear the strange puncture on the back of their necks. Before they leave, they and also George caution David and Mary to say nothing to anyone about the UFO sighting.

Deep down, David senses that something is very wrong and is proven right when a school friend of his, young Katy (Janine Perreau), also vanishes in the sandpit - something he happened to observe by looking through his telescope from his bedroom window. When Katy, just like David’s father, re-appears again, her behaviour is not only odd but she burns down her parent’s house!
David reckons that it’s high time to visit the local police station though has no idea that by doing so, his troubles are about to start for real… Apart from the fact that no one at the police station believes him, David can’t help noticing that the top dogs in the police department also bear puncture marks in their necks… The police chief orders that David is locked in a cell on grounds that he’s clearly not right in the head, how else can one explain his fantastic stories of UFOs landing behind his parents house. Still, Health Department physician Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter) is summoned to check on the boy but surprise surprise, after a lengthy conversation she believes every word he says. When David’s parents turn up at the police station to collect their son, Dr. Blake instinctively feels that something is wrong with the boy’s parents, as does David himself - because now his Mum sports a puncture mark on her neck too. Dr. Pat refuses to hand David back his parents with the excuse that she needs to run more tests on him. In reality, she consults a friend of hers, local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz) and both come to the conclusion that little David was not only right in getting extremely worried about the weird situation unfolding in front of his eyes but soon, the entire town has massive cause for concern…

The tension never lets up and even though the scenes in which the various characters walk along the narrow path which leads to the mysterious sandpit bears echoes - from a visual viewpoint - of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, the alien threat becomes all too real… Until the climax offers a double-whammy of a twist ending, though it’s up to us, the viewers, whether those twists are to be believed or not…

John F. Seitz’ cinematography contributes much to the otherworldly atmosphere and even though some stock footage had to be used to pad out the initially too short movie to its final 80 minutes running time, it doesn’t dampen the end result.

The film has just been released by BFI in a glorious 4K restoration both in BFI UHD and Blu-ray format and as ever, it comes with an array of Bonus Material, including audio commentaries, interviews, featurettes, trailers, discussions about the film, image gallery and an illustrated booklet (first pressing only).