science fiction Archives - Page 2 of 2

Invaders From Mars (1953)

Posted on October 10, 2023October 10, 2023 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is a classic B-Movie Science Fiction Horror from the fifties. “Invaders from Mars” hit the theaters in 1953 and was the first movie to hit the big screen about alien body snatchers. This is far more Sci-Fi than Horror but it’s close enough to make my October viewing. It was also remade in the 1980’s by Tobe Hooper, so it was enough of a Horror to attract one of the genre’s masters to the remake. This version was written by Richard Blake and directed by William Cameron Menzies. It was an independent production based on an original script.

Body Snatchers!

Viewing Invaders From Mars for the first time seventy years after it came out requires us to have a little perspective on things. Obviously it has a lot of similarities to the Body Snatchers story, which is much more famous and manages a remake about once every couple of decades. However it’s worth noting that the first Body Snatchers movie came out three years after this one and even the novel on which it is based came out a year after this. However, while there may have been some influence it’s worth noting that Robert Heinlein’s story “The Puppet Masters” pre-dates both of these as it was released in 1951.

So why was this trope so common in the 50’s? Well, the Red Menace of course. I’m sure you already knew that since you can’t read anything about 50’s science fiction and horror without pages of someone talking about communism. So I’m not going to waste much of your time on that. That said, an insidious presence trying to take over a community from the inside for nefarious reasons is just as valid today as it was then (Perhaps more so), so it’s a great example of how timeless a movie can be when it’s message is kept as subtext and metaphor and isn’t too on the nose.

The Insidious Presence

This is very much a movie of two halves. The first part is Body Snatchers light. As mentioned above, not a knock off due to the timing of releases, but it doesn’t drive the concept anywhere near as hard as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. The other key difference is this movie has a child protagonist (“David”) who we follow from start to finish. David is played by Jimmy Hunt, who largely retired from acting not long after this movie but did return to take on the small role of the police chief in the 80’s remake. For what it’s worth he does a pretty good job here. Not the best performance I’ve seen from a child actor but perfectly serviceable.

The first half of the movie kicks off when David spots what appears to be a UFO landing in a Sandpit area near his house. After his father goes to check it out, he comes back changed. David starts to notice several other people have been changed including his mother, a girl neighbor of his and the Chief of Police. He eventually is listened to by a friendly police office and a Doctor that meet up with a local Astronomer that knows the boy and his father who confirms the boy isn’t prone to making stuff up. This is where the story shifts and the Martians deception becomes a lot less of an issue.

Turning The Tables

The second half of the movie is instead about the army trying to find a way to defeat these martians. At this point it becomes a fairly standard Sci-Fi affair but with a slight twist at the end of the story maybe being a dream (Or not, it’s unclear form the ending). This second half is pretty reasonable for a B-Movie Sci-Fi of the 1950’s, but doesn’t feature much of note outside of a pretty cool design for the Martian “Intelligence”, who was basically the Meekon with tentacles. Considering the effects limitations and budget this is surprisingly well executed. That said, there is a great deal of repeat footage in this section (Both of military convoys

The first half though is where most of the horror aspects lay and it’s done pretty well. Victims being sucked down into the sand by martians, the changed people’s cold aggressive attitude (Including a hard slap to David from his “Father” fairly early on) and the mystery of what they are up to all play out rather well. The only issue with once we reach that halfway point most of this impact is lost and honestly by that point the kid largely just gets in the way of the narrative.

Conclusion

All told though this is a pretty solid B-Movie. It shows a great deal of imagination and it’s a shame this film is mostly forgotten due to the large shadow cast by Don Siegel’s 1956 masterpiece “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Next year I will try and fit Hooper’s remake into my October viewing. That said, the second half is notably weaker than the first, the ending is an anti-climax and frankly the movie hasn’t aged that well. This is worth viewing if you are into 1950’s B-Movies or are a movie buff in general, but otherwise probably not worth the effort tracking down. I’m scoring this (In the context of the modern day) at a high 5.5/10.

Possessor (2020)

Posted on October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 by fenrisfil

Last October I was introduced to Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg through his movie “Infinity Pool” (2022). While it wasn’t one of my top films of the year, I was impressed by Brandon’s style and interested by both the similarities and differences with his father. So for this years Halloween Challenge I had a look for anything else directed by Brandon and found “Possessor”. It actually scores higher than Infinity Pool on IMDB (and more than Brandon’s only other feature film “Antiviral” (2012). So it seemed worth a shot. Possibly several shots and a few stabbings. Let’s find out!

Familiar Territory.

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, possessor stars Andrea Riseborough (as “Tasya Vos”) and Christopher Abbott (As “Colin Tate” and “Tasya Vos” in Tate’s body). It also has a support role for Jennifer Jason Leigh (Who also starred in David Cronenberg’s “Existenz” (1999)) and Sean Bean who you naturally assume is not going to survive the movie, but I’m not giving spoilers. The set up is very much something from a Science Fiction Action movie and had it been in that genre I’d probably comment on it not being especially interesting. However, this is Brandon Cronenberg, so I’m not expecting explosions and car chases.

Much like with Infinity Pool, the plot here is based on a fairly out there science fiction concept, in this case taking control of another persons body and using it to perform assassinations. Both movies are also sort of casual about it, the movie doesn’t appear to be set notably in the future and there is no real explanation about the technology. It ultimately is not about the tech and instead more about human psychology and the film uses the technology to examine that.

What It Is About And What It Really Is About.

True to form, the story seems barely interested in the actual assassination job for which Vos was hired, instead it is really about her mental state and that of her victims. This is a film about identity and the dark desires that hide in the back of peoples’ minds and provides a conclusion that is… well, very Cronenberg. Like with Infinity Pool, the classic Body Horror stuff you tend to expect from the family is present but used sparingly (Except on the marketing material, where it’s overused to the point that it could be called misleading).

What grounds the film more in Horror than Sci-Fi is we are looking at the main characters journey into her own darkness. Shedding her humanity (Much of which seemed to be faked, reacting as people would expect instead of how she feels). While this is laid out for the viewer fairly early on, the journey still offers some surprises and there are perhaps some double meanings behind a few of the scenes. Pacing wise it is a little slow with probably too much focus on people having sex (Another Cronenberg trait) but neither of these are particularly problematic. The film has a feel of a dream and the Jim Williams soundtrack is clearly designed to emphasize this.

Dark Desires

Abbott and Riseborough put in solid performances. Both play Vos, but in Abbots case only while she is in Tate’s body. This means Abbott has to convince the viewer he is two different people in one body, in some cases including Vos pretending to be Tate and others in a way that is meant to feel like it could be either. He does this pretty well. Risenborough meanwhile gets to play Vos as herself, which is largely unemotional and cold, but underneath that a character disturbed and frustrated by her own emotions. She does it well.

Overall I feel about this movie a lot like I did with Infinity Pool. It is interesting and well executed. However, it is a pretty linear feeling journey where we always feel like we are just slowly plodding from A to B. There is a little bit of depth but not enough to really drive discussion. The technology involved is one that obviously opens a lot of philosophical debate (Like in Infinity Pool) and yet Brandon (Again) ignores most of that to hyper focus on a fairly simple character journey.

Once again this feels like taking a David Cronenberg film and watering it down a bit to make it more accessible to the audience. The end result is a movie I definitely enjoyed, but will probably not watch a second time. I can’t help but feel Brandon has an all time great Horror in him, but this isn’t it. It is instead a narrow 6/10.

Paul (2011)

Posted on February 10, 2023February 10, 2023 by fenrisfil

When following the films of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg it’s hard not to be underwhelmed when you get to this little number. It seems clear that while Frost may be a walking encyclopaedia of pop culture references, the creativity and flair of his more famous movies likely came from Edgar Wright, because this completely lacks either, but it does have a LOT of references in it. So if you are the kind of person that enjoys movies just because they reference other, better movies, TV shows and comics then this will be for you. If not… Maybe give it a skip.

Paul is written by Pegg and Frost and helmed by “Superbad” and “Adventureland” director Greg Mottola. It stars Pegg, Frost as a couple of Brits visiting America to attend comiccon and the talentless Seth Rogen (Sorry, but I don’t get why he keeps getting so much work) as the titular alien that stumbles into their path late one night after attending the con. The pair decide to help Paul return home, but are pursued by the FBI and various groups of rednecks… because rednecks, I guess.

By The Numbers.

The story itself is a pretty generic by the numbers, protect the friendly alien story. It could be “E. T.” , “*Batteries not Included”, even “Short Circuit” (If you ignore he’s not an Alien). Though those movies have a lot more heart to them. It could also be “Bumblebee” or “Monster Truck” or any number of similar stories of more recent years. The only thing different here is the Alien looks like a generic grey type alien…. So basically it’s a double cliché.

That’s really the game this film is playing. It substitutes any originality or heart for tired tropes and just out of the blue references that could have been stuck at any time in the film since they are only there to be references. This is exactly the kind of film I’d expect a pop culture junky to make and perhaps in the late 90’s to early 2000’s when those kinds of films/shows were relatively fresh and popular (I was a fan of Pegg’s own “Spaced”) they could have gotten away with it, but by 2011 that was all feeling pretty stale. Roll on to 2023 when I’m making this review and it’s still being over done but notably a lot less popular. Everyone is tiring of it now.

Clichés and Stereotypes.

Of course those pop culture referencing films of that period were also funny, which helped them a lot. Some even had artistic merit (The first Clerks film for instance). This doesn’t have either of those. It’s just references, tropes and cameos (Well, one cameo, but that’s also a reference).The closest it.

When the film isn’t doing pop culture references, it is basically just stereotyping people instead, because making a character that isn’t a hundred percent generic would apparently be beyond Pegg and Frost’s writing partnership in 2011. Honestly, it’s shocking to see the gulf between this movie and Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz. Both of those also featured a tonne of references, but actually had a good plot, some really funny moments and… well… style!

Conclusion.

Ultimately this film exposes the limitations of the Pegg/Frost partnership without Edgar Wright’s involvement. Pegg especially is a one trick pony, only able to throw in pop culture references (It’s even how he wrote his Star Trek script, that’s why you had a major scene involving playing The Beastie Boys). Wright brought the quality and style to that partnership and is sorely missed here. This is a 4/10.