SCREAMERS

RELEASED 25 MAY 1996 | 18 | Blu-ray

Director Christian Duguay

Cast Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis,

Jennifer Rubin, Andy Lauer

This middling adaptation of Philip K Dick’s 1957 tale “Second Variety” is terribly tough, to the point of being slightly camp.

Though fairly faithful, it shifts the setting from a post-WW3 Earth to a mining planet (excellent matte painting work sells the world), and the titular Screamers (buzzsawpacking bots which emerge from the grounds like Graboids to slice and dice enemy forces) are called “Claws” in the short story. The high concept – the self-replicating Screamers have now started imitating humans – also makes more sense in the original, which clues us in early on to the fact that they come in a variety of forms.

It’s Verhoeven-esque in tone, with Peter Weller’s Commander Hendricksson doing a lot of narrow-eyed spitting of laconic one-liners while sucking on a cigarette, and the only woman he encounters casually removing her top within minutes to show she’s A Chick Who Can Handle Herself. Quite how much of this is down to Alien originator Dan O’Bannon, whose screenplay was reworked, is unclear, but if you like your SF hard-boiled you’re as likely to chuckle as you are to roll your eyes.

Extras EOFFTV.com editor Kevin Lyons provides commentary; recent interviews (75 minutes) with the director, a producer, the second-draft screenwriter and star Rubin; trailer; booklet. Ian Berriman