Arthur Franz, Bert Freed, Charles Cane

The cold-war paranoia of the McCarthy era had America in its grip when the original Invaders from Mars was released in 1953, and this atmospheric, highly influential science fiction film--the ...( read more  read more... )first of its kind to be filmed in color--was perfectly in tune with the mood of its time. Jimmy Hunt plays the quintessential American boy of the post-war years--a freckle-faced kid named David who's curious, alert, and possibly prone to elaborate flights of fancy. Then, during a midnight thunderstorm, he witnesses the landing of a flying saucer that buries itself underground in a nearby field. David's father (Leif Erickson) indulges his son's urging to investigate... and thus begins a bizarre and chilling story of alien invasion, with David's cries of "Martians!" falling on deaf ears as more and more adults are abducted, probed, and placed under alien control.

Designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies (one of the greatest production designers of Hollywood's golden age, whose credits include Gone with the Wind), this eerie little thriller benefits from Menzies's skill at combining physical settings with psychological undercurrents of paranoid terror and resistance against the alien threat. It's still most effective for younger viewers, with Jimmy Hunt providing the story's youthful point of view. And although the malevolent aliens look campy now, with a leader who resembles a bubble-brained squid in a fishbowl, Invaders from Mars remains one of the seminal science fiction films of its time, paving the way for The War of the Worlds and the rapidly developing trend of alien-invasion thrillers. --Jeff Shannon

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56% liked it

1,957 ratings

Unrated, 78 min.

Directed by: William Cameron Menzies

Release Date: April 22, 1953

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DVD Release Date: January 7, 1999

Stats: 119 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (119)


  • September 23, 2009
    My favourite B-movie/ UFO film of the 50's! Cold-war paranoia and western propaganda, sure, but just enjoy it for what it is, a really creepy Sci-fi classic!
  • April 8, 2007
    Quaintly dated but seminal 50s sci-fi in which a freckle-faced apple pie scoffing yank kid (who clearly deserves a slap) is the only witness to an alien invasion. Like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, the strength of the premise outweighs the dodgy execution, and as such, it's sti...( read more)ll worth a look.
  • September 15, 2006
    Certainly the most exciting sci-fi film of the 1950s, Invaders from Mars is fast, fun and brainless with wild, inventive effects and a great look.
  • March 12, 2009
    "Invaders from Mars" is a mostly typical and stereotypical U.S. science fiction film from the 1950s with a smaller budget than most but a curious eye for occasional beauty amidst the perfunctory genre staples and its own budgetary constraints.

    Predating "Invasion of the Bodysnat...( read more)chers" and "This Island Earth" (and influencing both) and hot on the heels of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (which influenced it), this film may not be in their class but belongs in their universe. While awkwardly written and underfunded, it finds beauty in such things as a particularly well framed and designed recurring shot of a hill with a fence, a swirling sandpit and the (then) newish image of the glass-encased martian leader with an oversized head.

    Not exactly a classic, but certainly a wonderful, innocent, smugness-free nostalgia trip even for those of us who would not be born for several decades after it was released.
  • August 6, 2009
    I'm sure this original was much better than the remake. Even though I haven't seen this one"
  • June 15, 2009
    "NATURAL or SUPERNATURAL?"



    One night, young David McLean sees a spaceship crash into a nearby sandpit. His father goes to investigate, but comes back changed. Where once he was cheerful and affectionate, he's now sullen and snarlingly rude. Others fall into the sand...( read more)pit and begin acting like him: cold, ill-tempered and conspiratorial. David knows that aliens are taking over the bodies of humans,

    but he'll soon discover there have been far more of these terrible thefts than he could have imagined. The young doom-monger finds some serious help in a lady doctor and a brilliant astronomer. Soon they meet the aliens: green creatures with insect-like eyes. These beings prove to be slaves to their leader: a large, silent head with ceaselessly shifting eyes and two tentacles on either side, each of which branches off into three smaller tentacles. It's up to the redoubtable earth trio to stop its evil plans.
  • April 24, 2009
    An early Sci Fi classic from 1953. Brilliant!
  • April 24, 2009
    A great classic Sci Fi from 1953.
  • January 22, 2009
    No espera ver grandes efectos pero si por lo menos una buena historia y de eso tampoco encontré es un mas de marcianos malvados
  • June 5, 2008
    Nothing better than outright paranoia. Is my mom an alien, did they get to the police chief, has my dad been turned? Kinda like body snatchers but more fun because the paranoid one is a kid that no one believes anyways. Call me unoriginal but I like the 80s one better.

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Invaders from Mars Trivia


  • List the word missing from these movies: Invaders from ___, Attack from ___, Mission to ___.  Answer »
  • In "Invaders from Mars", where do the invaders live while on earth?   Answer »

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