Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)

38% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 33% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings

A boy (Hunter Carson) sees his parents and neighbors act like zombies after a flying saucer lands in his back yard.

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Invaders From Mars

Critics Reviews

View All (16) Critics Reviews
Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Noel Murray The Dissolve But while it's first and foremost a terrific showcase for some imaginative designers, Invaders From Mars also holds together fairly well as a movie. Rated: 3.5/5 Apr 13, 2015 Full Review Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (2) Eddie Harrison film-authority.com ...the first half of Invaders From Mars is easily the best, with a strange off-kilter feel that comes from slavishly updating a 50's storyline... Rated: 3/5 Mar 28, 2021 Full Review Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Richard Freedman Newhouse News Service None of this will exactly make you faint -- either from terror or pleasure. Nov 15, 2019 Full Review Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Matt Brunson Film Frenzy [UPDATED 2024 BLU-RAY REVIEW] A hapless remake from the jokers who also gave the world Bolero, Firewalker, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Rated: 1.5/4 Apr 8, 2015 Full Review Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Dustin Putman TheBluFile.com Creepy and charming. Rated: 2.5/4 Apr 8, 2015 Full Review Invaders From Mars (1986) | Rotten Tomatoes (6) Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jun 30, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member A somewhat fun movie that suffers from some bad acting. I enjoyed the military part of the movie, but that's about it. It was very predictable and the directing didn't seem very good. The ending sucked too. I'd say it's a bad movie that is a tiny bit fun. Rated 1.5/5 Stars • Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/13/24 Full Review Audience Member Unimaginative, poorly paced rip off of similar science fiction films - "E.T," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," etc - failing to replicate the tension or the sense of wonder of either of those films.It's cheesy. The sets, the plotting, the acting, the sound mixing/editing. There's a couple decent pieces of cinematography and direction but other than that. Just doesn't add up to a quality picture. Then for it all to have been a dream in the end? HA.There is potential here - a story of a child having to save his town from body snatchers - but the director Tobe Hooper and the screenwriters are just not up to the challenge. Rated 1.5/5 Stars • Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 09/04/24 Full Review This Old G Watchable but has none of the surreal dream like, I should say nightmarish quality of the original. Sure it has better production values but that doesn't automatically make it a better film Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/03/24 Full Review Alec B Way too long (something it shares with its predecessor) and the creature designs don't really work but Hooper does effectively get into the same children's head space as the original. Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/28/24 Full Review G. Ozan à If you are a B movie enthusiast, this is an essential for you. Lofi Giger-esque designs, a kid who acts like a 40 yo, annoying teacher character. It was very fun! Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/14/24 Full Review William O Always liked karen bllack and this was a really interesting movie to watch Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Invaders From Mars

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Cast & Crew

Tobe Hooper Director Karen Black Linda Magnusson Hunter Carson David Gardner Laraine Newman Ellen Gardner Timothy Bottoms George Gardner James Karen Gen. Climet Wilson
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Invaders From Mars

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Synopsis A boy (Hunter Carson) sees his parents and neighbors act like zombies after a flying saucer lands in his back yard.

Director
Tobe Hooper

Producer
Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan

Screenwriter
Richard Blake, Don Jakoby, Dan O'Bannon

Distributor
Anchor Bay Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Image Entertainment Inc., MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.

Production Co
Paramount

Rating
PG

Genre
Sci-Fi

Original Language
English

Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 6, 1986, Original

Release Date (Streaming)
May 4, 2017

Box Office (Gross USA)
$4.8M

Runtime
1h 38m

Sound Mix
Surround
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