WHAT A SCREAM
It’s an amusing thing to see a film which you know absolutely nothing about, in fact I didn’t even know Screamers was a science fiction film until the very first line appeared on the screen "it was the year 2078..." before I was aware of it.
Screamers. It’s not exactly the kind of title that conjures up images of a science fiction movie. If anything, it would be more suited to a horror film than a sci-fi one.
From the very outset, the film confuses the viewer. The written history to introduce the story is totally foreign in concept, and as such most of it goes in one eye and out the other (as happened to me as I tried to soak in all this text). Subsequently it takes a little while to work out just what exactly is going on. At least the accompanying music was good.
One thing I should mention now, if you’re having a really exciting day, don’t see this movie! Screamers is a really unhappy science fiction film. Everyone is depressed, there is death and destruction everywhere and no one is having a good time. This invariably makes the audience somewhat depressed as it seems that nothing good ever happens in this world. Admittedly, once you begin to "acclimatise", you can see the film with a better perspective, but it is still strongly reminiscent of the oppressive sci-fi flicks from the late 60s and early 70s. For this reason, Screamers doesn’t rate well as "entertainment" (which is a major drawback to films who try to be all too realistic).
To sum Screamers up, it’s a cross between Tremors and The Terminator with a splash of Aliens, and unlike a couple of those films mentioned, this is by no means a masterpiece. It deals with a group of people stranded on a condemned mining planet which has long since been abandoned by the authorities due to the heavy contamination the planet has faced as a result of the mining, but the real down side to the planet is the inhabitance of the screamers.
Essentially the screamers are killing machines (robots if you will) made in some secret underground factory. They transport themselves just under the surface of the ground (ala Tremors) and attack all living things with a building up of a high pitched shriek which takes place before an attack (doesn’t really sound like much does it?). They are scattered around the whole planet and have reached a stage in production where they are getting a lot more advanced. This leads to the main direction of the story, which is the emergence of advanced quality screamers who are designed as people (ala Terminator) and who are indistinguishable from the real thing.
This is where the story leads into its main direction, after having learned that the screamers are now capable of acting as people, no one can identify what is a screamer and what isn’t. This leads to an awful lot of plot holes as we learn that a couple of our main cast are screamers themselves.
It is never made clear just what the screamers are actually trying to achieve. It appears for a while that they are determined to kill the remaining humans on the planet, but it is never revealed why, nor is it made clear why the screamers should create a human-like model in the first place. No where is it said that they are out to kill the people, it just states that they attack all things that have a heart beat. They do not eat the people, and they do not feel threatened by them, so in short there is nothing to be gained by wanting their destruction. The planet is totally isolated with no chance of any ships ever coming for them to infiltrate and take over the universe, so in many ways, their presence serves no purpose and thus makes the film a war about nothing. It is when we do discover screamers are being manufactured as people that the film makes some big mistakes. For one, they are able to create sentient life forms, therefore the army of children who come out of the base like zombies serves no purpose. Also the screamer man and woman who are helping to destroy these robot kids could have easily turned their weapons on the two humans if their annihilation was what they were seeking. Remember at this time, the mention of the spaceship which can escape the planet has not taken place, so either way, there was not a lot to be gained from these actions.
The only positive side to the film is its production values, everything looks authentic and very lived in. Aside from that, Screamers serves no purpose, doing little to make you care about what is happening to the good guys. The characters are generally uninteresting and even Peter Weller, who is the only "Star" in this film, is able do little to inspire it. At least with Robocop he made an impact.
I believe Screamers had a very short lifespan at the cinema, which is not at all surprising, so it’ll probably be seen on the video weekly rental stand any day now. Destined for obscurity.