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Good Fun

General Zombie | the West | 05/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"'Screamers' is a very entertaining movie, albeit definitely of the B-Movie variety, as so many other reviewers have pointed out. This film reputedly had a budget of 11 million, and it seems like it should be a lot less than that, but no matter what it's got a real low-budget feel to it with a kind of a basic cable sci-fi show look to it. This is, of course, based on the classic Phil Dick short story 'Second Variety' and is also the only Dick adaptation that I am aware of that follows the story with any faithfulness at all, though the upcoming 'A Scanner Darkly' looks like it might change this trend. (Other adaptations being 'Blade Runner', 'Minority Report', 'Total Recall', 'Paycheck', 'Impostor' etc.) Of course, even as the most faithful adaptation they still make a lot of changes, but much of the general plot and major details remain the same anyway, which is nice. Anyway, this is the kinda movie that requires a very specific taste as it walks the line between effective drama and campiness, making it a movie that's kinda silly and wacky but one which I still take more or less seriously, as a whole. Anyway, I likes it.

'Screamers' centers around a long-standing conflict between the the Alliance and the New Economic Block on some distant planet. (Sirius 6B, or something like that.) As the film opens a lone NEB troop walks into the Alliance base carrying a message. He's torn apart by the murderous, subterranean robots called Autonomous Mobile Swords or Screamers, but they still receive the message: The NEBs want to negotiate peace. Shortly thereafter Alliance commander Hendricks learns a dark truth about the war: The war on this planet is essentially over and has been for years, but it's important for the Alliance to keep the troops there and away from Earth for political reasons, so they've been kept in the dark. Needless to say, Hendricks isn't terribly pleased with the situation, and he heads off to negotiate with the NEBs and get the hell off of the planet. The situation proves a lot more complicated than this, however, as upon leaving the base Hendricks soon discovers that the Alliance-built Screamers are now truly autonomous, building new designs, imitating human forms and killing everyone they can get at, Alliance or NEB.

I think this is a pretty damn good Sci-Fi Action/Horror plot. Not terribly new now, though it was probably a lot more fresh in 1952, but it's definitely still workable. The screamers themselves are just neat, kinda underground variants of the Phantasm orbs, and the whole, who is human, who isn't aspect of the film that comes into play later is fun, if, again, not terribly fresh anymore. We've got an entertaining pack of characters here, led by Robocop himself, Peter Weller, as Hendricks. I like Weller a lot, and he's in good form here, making a fine tough-guy action hero. I also particularly like Roy Dupuis as the nutty, sarcastic, Shakespeare-quoting Becker. He's pretty damn over the top, but I think he's entertaining enough. All the performances are entertaining, if in a kind of affected, B-movie way. Furthermore, the script, from famed Sci-Fi/Horror Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, (Alien, Dark Stay, Total Recall, Dead & Buried etc.) is actually a fair bit sharper and more clever than you'd usually see in this kinda movie. This is, perhaps, no great compliment, but it's something, anyway.

I think the film also creates some effective atmosphere, with burnt out cities and snowy, endless sand dunes, screamer tunnels appearing randomly here and there. The movie also manages to bring out a claustrophobic, paranoiac tone later on as the trust between the characters fades and they wander through the cramped, run down tunnels. Furthermore some of the ideas in the story are just too chilling to be much diminished by this sometimes over the top film. Spoilers Ahead: The murderous little kid screamers are surprisingly creepy, particularly their perennial call, 'Can I come with you?. I also like the endless, circular conversation between Hendricks and the his now dead home base. Finally, I just like how the Screamers more more less eat people. (And rats. Whatever they can find, apparently.) There's just something really bizarre and creepy about robots eating flesh.

The film does falter a bit at the end, with a fairly silly last fight scene, but it's still entertaining in its way, and it doesn't diminish the impact of the film too much as a whole. And the final stinger, while pretty stupid, is also quite amusing, I think.

Grade: B"