PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Coventry I'm a tremendously big fan of fifties Sci-Fi movies and, even though I don't rank this "Invaders from Mars" among my decade's favorites (probably not even in the top 10), I most certainly do reckon its value and importance for the Sci-Fi genre in general. I think we cannot even estimate how influential – and quintessential – this motion picture from William Cameron Menzies has been, and still is, for the genre. To name just one example, for as long as I can remember, even in kindergarten school already, the image of extraterrestrial beings that got planted in my head was that of an odd-looking green creature with large heads and evil penetrating eyes. I daresay that this alien prototype largely originates from "Invaders from Mars", and perhaps one or two other contemporary classics, and several more basic Sci-Fi principles were still fresh and innovative back in 1953, like the rural "backdoor" of America setting and the aliens' mind-controlling techniques. As said, I personally prefer other fifties genre milestones over "Invaders from Mars", most notably the rawer and disturbing ones like "War of the Worlds", "Forbidden Planet", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "The Thing from Another World", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", etc etc… And yet, from many viewpoints "Invaders from Mars" is quite mature and intense despite the lead protagonist being a young boy and the climax being a complete letdown. During a stormy night, the young astrology-obsessed David MacLean witness how a flying saucer lands over the sand hills behind his parental house. David's parents naturally don't believe his grotesque story but they are the first ones to sink into an eerie sandpit and return as robotic and cold- hearted minions. Several more people are lured to the sandpit behind the MacLean's house and, especially from the little wound in the back of all their necks, David quickly concludes that they have brainwashed by the aliens that landed in the saucer. As more and more sandpit visitors begin to behave strangely and freak accidents occur all over town, David finally receives support from a friendly female physician and an immense military counter-action gradually unfolds itself in David's backyard and underneath the ground. The first half of the film is compelling and tense, what with David being pushed around and even menaced by the town's authority figures, or the eerie sub plot about the little neighbor girl Kathy who set her house on fire! The second half is more dull and routine, even though it's only by then that the green Martians appear on screen, and the underground battles seem to take forever. One of the reasons why I found "Invaders from Mars" disappointing is the random and over-excessive use of military stock footage. There are far too many repetitive shots of bomb explosions and massive tanks firing even though it's made quite clear that they don't have anything to nuke or shoot at, since the aliens are under the ground! I like the Martians' green rubber suits & masks a lot and particularly their "leader" – basically a surly silver head with tentacles attached to it, and living in a fish bowl – is a highlight of creative fifties' Sci-Fi imagination, but you can hardly refer to them as frightening or even remotely unsettling. The climax is annoying but I've grown to accept this kind of end twists, especially when the pivot characters are children. I'm glad to have seen "Invaders from Mars" for its historical relevance and because it contains some really atmospheric filming location and sound recordings, but I can easily name two dozen of Sci-Fi movies from the fifties era that better and yet more obscure.

Robert J. Maxwell It takes a little mental work -- rearranging the schemata, tweaking the synapses -- before you can accept Leif Erickson as a smiling husband, father, and respectable scientist. Usually, he's on an airplane in jeopardy or some other tense situation. And he's the angry guy who stands in the aisle, blocking everyone, shouting orders in a loud voice, and demanding to know what's going on because he has an important business meeting and -- why is that engine on fire? Is he going to be late? Once over that hurdle, you can settle down to an old-fashioned science fiction movie that hides its low budget by the sparing use of special effects. There are no monsters flapping around in ugly rubber suits. People just disappear in the sand. It's like an extended episode of "The Twilight Zone." The story follows the general template of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," except that instead of pods there are tiny electronic devices planted in the base of the skull. The scientific dialog is risible. "We've attached the standard frame to a variable oscillator. That should do the trick." The rest of the characters are pretty much stereotyped. The first victim to get it in the neck is the loving father, Leif Erickson, and for the rest of the movie we can let our archetypes go back to where they belong. He turns into a nasty brute who slaps his kid around and snarls. Oh, by the way, you can always tell who's under alien control. They stare expressionlessly into the camera and never blink. And if they get in trouble, their heads explode.I'd like to recommend William Cameron Menzies, an intuitive genius in his own way, but this is awfully clumsy. The dialog, lacking any touch of originality to begin with, seems to be read aloud for the first time from cue cards off screen. "Your father and mother are at the hospital, Davey." "But." "They'll be all right." There is a palpable pause before and after "but." Lapses like that recur.We win the final underground battle but I don't know how. Too many suspense devices are stirred into the narrative -- the earthlings are trapped in tunnels while a time bomb is ticking away; tanks are shelling the hell out of an area unoccupied by aliens; crazed Martian slaves wrapped like mummies lumber this way and that; the Ultimate Humanity that runs the whole Geschäft is a bronze disembodied head with the features of Idi Amin.The military defeats the Martians, which is rather an original touch. Usually the tanks are useless and some special device like a ray gun must be invented for the sole purpose of disabling and destroying the aliens and the junk they've brought with them. In movies of this caliber, nobody would ever dream of a solution like having the aliens undone by their lack of immunity to our germs.

Brian Baker First saw this as an 8 yr. old. Mom dropped me off at one theater showing a 2 western matinée. When she drove off, I went around the corner to the theater showing Invaders from Mars. Scared the (well you know) out of me. Literally had to have the hall light on for a year. Checked my closet floor too! The four scariest aspects of this movie were 1. The thought that your parents could be other than those rocks of Gibralter you always counted on them being 2. That creepy choral music. 3. The surreal aspects(notice the bare, stark police station) and 4. The nightmare quality of running and not being able to escape. Having watched it again recently,I enjoyed it as much as I did 57 years ago. Great flick!

AaronCapenBanner Jimmy Hunt plays David MacLean, a young boy who wakes up to see a spaceship land in a nearby sand pit. His father goes to investigate, but returns completely changed, with an unpleasant personality. Others who go investigate return the same way. Turns out they are being taken over by aliens from mars who are determined to conquer Earth, person by person...Though held in high regard for its nostalgia value, by any objective standard this a turgid mess, with silly looking aliens that are an embarrassment to Science Fiction. Some good cinematography can't save it.