MY CALL: A wily writer, director, cast and crew succeed beyond their budget’s means in telling of a great piece of science fiction. No, this movie is no masterpiece of cinema. But it’s a great Sci-Fi story, and a solid, classic Sci-Fi movie. Strong recommendation for fans of Peter Weller. MORE MOVIES LIKE Screamers: For yet more bonkers killer robot fare, try Chopping Mall (1986), Deadly Friend (1986), Hardware (1990), Moontrap (1989), Virus (1999), Nemesis (1992). For more serious Sci-Fi with strong stories to tell, consider Enemy Mine (1985), Starship Troopers (1997) and Total Recall (1990).
On a 2078 mining colony scorched by radiation and war, the planet Sirius 6B has become a sandy apocalypse with sand-burrowing, self-replicating killer robots called screamers infesting the land in search of surviving humans. The robots serve the New Economic Bloc, trying to eradicate the remaining members of the Alliance in this wasteland.
These delightful little mecha-fiends scream as they whiz through the sand like moles on steroids, then leap at their targets scything off limbs with their mini-buzzsaws. They’re like a cross between a Phantasm (1979) flying sphere and a humorless graboid from Tremors (1990). Considering this came out within a couple years of Starship Troopers (1997; $105 million budget) and five years after Total Recall (1990; $65 million budget), the special effects and set design budget seems especially humble (considering the $20 million for the entire film). Despite this, which would normally be a major visual shortcoming, I find that this movie tells a great, even if simple story very effectively. Peter Weller leads the narrative well, some nicely illustrated backgrounds of the apocoscape give character to Sirius 6B, and the charming stop motion screamer variations make me smile.
Our plot readily thickens as we discover that the screamers are evidenced to be the creation of the Alliance, that Colonel Joe Hendricksson (Peter Weller; Of Unknown Origin, RoboCop) has received recent communications to “end the war” from an Alliance representative who has apparently been dead for years, and that there are new and very different kinds of upgraded screamers to wage war against mankind. Joe teams up with the leader Jessica (Jennifer Rubin; A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Bad Dreams, The Crush) of another bunker, who joins him on a journey of distrust, losing one man after another to betrayal of both human and robotic origins.
The fights with the screamers are not outstanding, but they manage to “work” in the context of the storytelling. Still, I loved seeing an army of little boys in identical outfits and carrying identical Teddy bears getting mowed down by Joe and Jessica’s machine-gunning squad (incl. Roy Dupuis). Frankly, while this movie doesn’t compare to blockbuster Sci-Fi releases of the era, I am quite entertained with the effects and pleased with the film overall.
Based on the short story “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, Electric Dreams) and adopted to screenplay by Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Aliens, The Return of the Living Dead, Lifeforce, Total Recall, Bleeders), director Christian Duguay (Scanners II-III) helmed the telling of a great piece of science fiction. No, this movie is no masterpiece of cinema. But it’s a great Sci-Fi story presented by a wily cast and crew who did the best they could with what they had. This is a solid, classic Sci-Fi movie.