Horror Movie Review: Screamers (1995)

Screamers is a 1995 science fiction horror film, directed by Christian Duguay. Based on Philip K. Dick’s 1953 short story “Second Variety”.

In the year 2078, the planet Sirius 6B, once a thriving mining hub, has been reduced to a toxic wasteland by a war between the mining company (N.E.B.), and “The Alliance”, a group of former mining and science personnel. After miners discovered that their extraction of ore released toxic gases, they went on strike, and the mining company hired mercenaries as strike breakers. Five years into the war, Alliance scientists created and deployed AI self-replicating machines that hunt down and kill N.E.B. soldiers on their own. They are nicknamed “screamers” because of a high-pitched noise they emit as they attack.

A fragile stalemate is in effect between the two exhausted, poorly supplied, and undermanned armies. The Alliance recovers a message from a dead N.E.B. soldier, killed by screamers as he approached the Alliance compound. It reads that safe passage through N.E.B. territory is available as they wish to discuss a truce. When Alliance commanding officer Joe Hendricksson reports this development to his Earth-based superiors, he is told that peace negotiations are already underway. But, Private “Ace” Jefferson, newly arrived from Earth, says that is untrue.

Hendricksson decides that the only realistic chance of survival for himself and his soldiers is to accept the truce offer. He sets out for a meeting with the commander, accompanied by Jefferson. While traveling through a destroyed city they come upon a war orphan, named David. Unwilling to abandon the little boy, they bring him along.

As the group nears the compound, two enemy soldiers, Becker and Ross, open fire on David, whose chest explodes in a shower of gears, bolts, and wires. They explain to the astonished Alliance men that David was a new type of screamer impersonating a human.

Can Hendricksson make sense of any of this and find some peace on this nightmare-fuelled rock? Watch and find out.

As Screamers began, I felt as if this was going to be a good one. The concept is very solid, inspired from various places (Dune, Terminator, The Thing), but I think that’s the main problem. Screamers is 2 hours long but is undercooked. It has all these fantastical ideas and the characters all say a lot, but not enough is shown. By the close, I still knew nothing about these characters and the world they lived in.

By having such underdeveloped characters, it’s hard to care about their fate. Instead of taking Jefferson (whos whole story I was confused about, anyway), he should have taken along Chuck because even in those few minutes of screen time they had an intense bond. The acting is great despite all this but it could have been so much more.

I thoroughly enjoyed the initial twist with David, but I did find their reactions underwhelming and that ruined it for me a little. It seemed absolutely world shattering to me but they didn’t seem that surprised despite apparently knowing little about the inner workings of these machines.

Screamers clearly has a decent budget and it shows. The sets, props and practical, hand crafted pieces looked excellent (some hokey effects too but they’re expected for a 90’s movie and few and far between). However, while it’s blasting from location to location they forgot to sit down and breathe and take a second to allow us to connect. Instead Hendricksson and his lot feel as empty as the AI in their midst.

Overall, Screamers has a brilliant concept, inspired by so many that came before but it’s underdeveloped and frantically races to an abrupt ending.