Screamers (1996)

No matter how many times I've seen this movie I will always love this movie!

Great atmosphere and music. Strongly recommend this one if you are into Philip K. Dick adaptations along the lines of Blade Runner. Has strong rewatch value as well. Lots of twists and turns in this one. Better than the sequel.

'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

"Screamers" is a sci-fi/horror film from 1995 starring Peter Weller (Robocop, Naked Lunch) and is based on a short story called "Second Variety" by the legendary Philip K. Dick. The screenplay adaptation was co-written by the late & great Dan O'Bannon and Miguel Tejada-Flores. While the film received mixed reviews at the time of its original release in addition to underperforming at the domestic box office grossing only 5.7 million against a production budget of 20 million, time has been kind to the film. It has amassed a loyal cult following of which I am one of those fans. While not a classic by any means, it is still a fun and interesting b-movie featuring solid performances, taut pacing, and interesting though at times uneven special effects work. "Screamers" makes its blu-ray debut courtesy of the fine people at Scream Factory. Presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (opened up slightly from its theatrical ratio of 1.85:1) and utilizing the AVC codec averaging a bit rate of 34 mbps, the film looks great overall and is a considerable improvement over the ancient DVD release. Although nothing is stated that this is a new scan of any sort, the HD master used for Scream Factory's blu-ray is in nice shape overall. Detail is excellent as is contrast and black levels. No digital tinkering appears to have been done. While a new 2K scan might have yielded even better results, the transfer on this disc actually exceeded my expectations regardless. Sound is presented in punchy and clear 2 channel master stereo only with English subtitles being included for the hearing impaired. Though not branded a collector's edition, Scream Factory's disc feature some cool newly commissioned extras as follows: NEW Northern Frights – An Interview With Director Christian Duguay (21 minutes) NEW Orchestrating The Future – An Interview With Producer Tom Berry (24 minutes) NEW More Screamer Than Human – An Interview With Co-writer Miguel Tejada-Flores (11 minutes) NEW From Runaway To Space – An Interview With Actress Jennifer Rubin (19 minutes) Theatrical Trailer No slipcover is included with this release but you can flip around the sleeve to have alternate poster art rather than the default theatrical poster art which I have always found to be bland in comparison. The alternate and to my eyes superior poster art on the other side features a cool profile shot of Peter Weller alongside beautiful co-star Jennifer Rubin. Fans of "Screamers" should pick up Scream Factory's blu-ray without hesitation. The film looks and sounds great in addition to featuring a substantial amount of informative bonus features too. Highly recommend!

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They salvaged the atmosphere of "Second Variety" pretty well when they did this in 1995. Shame that the sequel didn't live up to any of the profound settings and characters of the first one. But this here, is the original. The one I've seen as a kid that carved into my mind its terrible "Can I come with You?". In the far reaches of the future, corporations fights for mining rights on outer planets colonies. Radiations are high and people need to smoke their red cigarettes periodically, in order to coat their lungs in a protective anti-rad resin. On Sirius 6B, corporate war has been waged for so long that people fairly forgot everything else. The Screamers were created as the perfect autonomous weapon... but what happens when the weapon continues a war that is supposed to be over? The acting here is wonderful, keeping you on edge as to what these people have gone through. The perfect highlight for the plot twists that are coming. All I can say is... you'll never look at a Teddy bear in the exact same way after this one.

Exelente trama y pelicula de los 90

Pour moi, les films les plus angoissants ne sont pas ceux avec des monstres mutants mais bien ceux qui sont basés (au moins en partie) sur des choses réelles ou possibles. Ce Planète hurlante fait clairement partie de cette 2ème catégorie. L'histoire (l'exploitation de minerais sur d'autres planètes) est tout à fait plausible dans un futur plus ou moins proche. Les progrès constants dans le domaine de la robotique rendent tout à fait crédibles les robots tueurs (les fameux Screamers). Vous rajoutez ensuite des décors futuristes de bonne qualité et des acteurs certes peu connus (à part Peter 'Robocop' Weller) mais qui font bien leur job et vous obtenez ce petit bijou de SF qu'est Planète hurlante. Pour les amateurs de SF qui veulent découvrir un petit (mais excellent) film de SF je leur conseille sans hésiter ce Planète hurlante. J'espère que mon avis vous aura été utile. Si c'est le cas, n'hésitez pas à cliquer sur le bouton 'Oui' en-dessous, cela m'encouragera à continuer à donner mon avis. Merci.

Ce film est tiré de la nouvelle screamers de P K Dick ... Cette nouvelle excellente est disponible dans ce recueil : The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century . Si le film est loin d'avoir l'ampleur de ce texte et son impact émotionnel mais : L'ambiance y est malgré tout très réussie et ce malgré la relative simplicité du scenario .. Un bon moment de SF militaire où finalement il y a peu d'espoir et où on ne sait plus qui est qui ... De l'action et un excellent casting.