Screamers (1995)
Director: Christian Duguay
Starring: Peter Weller, Jennifer Rubin, Roy Dupuis, Andy Lauer
Primary genre: Science fiction
Secondary genre: Horror
You would think a film boasting a screenplay by the great Dan O’Bannon (Alien (1979)), the screenwriter who had taken a great crack at Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in Blade Runner (1982) would give us another fantastic dystopic adventure. After all, Dick’s short story Second Variety has a few horror callbacks which makes it all the more exciting to see it adapted for the big screen.
“Jefferson, you must be confusing me with someone who gives a shit.”
Unfortunately, Screamers will displease even the most hardcore audience members. While it starts off good, it quickly devolves into a pretty boring and subpar horror adventure that is as scary or tense as it thinks it is. To be fair, its subject matter is interesting enough from a bird’s eye perspective, but once we focus on our characters, there is not much going on. The script (with a rewrite by Miguel Tejada-Flores) tries to cram too many ideas using a substantially small budget that cannot flex or fully develop any intriguing concept; humanity vs autonomous machines, survival, corporal betrayal, mass extinction, capitalism, and oppressive social structures are all blend together to produce something that in its final moments results in a cinematically blunt whimper.
Its titular characters, Screamers - stealthy robots made by robots that aim to kill soldiers of the oppressive New Economic Block primarily by hiding in the ground, are a fascinating idea screaming (pun intended) for a fully fledged remake. However, the movie uses stop motion and poorly rendered CGI that are embarrassing to watch. Even the movie’s title card cannot escape this fate in a year that gave us the fantastic opening sequence in Mortal Kombat. Excluding this, Screamers takes some cues from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) but does not go anywhere interesting with them. Thus, the supposedly paranoia between our cast is never fully fledged or explained leaving the proceedings toothless.
Christian Duguay brings some stylistic direction and the matte paintings do give the world infrequently some depth but the lack of gore, engaging dialogue, and a disappointing finale grind Screamers to a halt. It does not help that there is not anything particularly memorable either with the exception of the young actor playing David and his arc. Peter Weller (Robocop (1987)) is always reliable feeling like home in science fiction territory but he has not much to do besides looking gloom and sprouting some one liners to his sniper rookie (Andy Lauer).
Screamers had a lot of potential especially for its themes and clever premise. It is a shame that is being let down by a cheap presentation and a practically non-existent budget. Even if you ignore these aspects, it could have implemented a gripping sequence of some sorts but amidst its unappealing characters and pseudo-intellectuality, it is not very likely to enjoy it.
Needs to be re-adapted asap
+Fascinating premise
+Reliable Peter Weller
+Cool ideas
-Wasted potential
-Cheap
-Lack of scares and atmosphere
-Unimaginative
-No thematic exploration