Abstract: Using the SF film INVADERS FROM MARS [1953] in a Child Psychiatry Seminar (1 Viewer)

[Mark_TS]

He also rates ALIEN [1979-Ridley Scott] highly as a film in the same category -who would have thought?
Found this gem on Glenn Erickson's page

Using the Science Fiction Film Invaders From Mars in a Child Psychiatry Seminar -- Zerby 29 (3): 316 -- Acad Psychiatry Condensed PDF DL


Acd Psy 129: 2005 Aug: pp.316-321, Zerby, Stephen A. MD

Using the Science Fiction Film Invaders From Mars in a Child Psychiatry Seminar -- Zerby 29 (3): 316 -- Acad Psychiatry
This link has the complete tables of research data & criteria, should you be interested

DSM IV 2008 cf William Cameron Menzies

 

[Dick]

This is appropriate. That 1953 lean-and-mean classic has a lot of nightmare symbolism and drills right into the psyche of young children, down to the base of their deepest fears and insecurities (fear of losing parents, fear of not being believed, fear of monsters, etc). The visual elements (including use of color, distorted sets and props, the opening and closing of the hole in the sand pit, the rather horrifying human chorus performing much of the atonal soundtrack each time a new victim is sucked undder the ground, even the cheesy zippers on the mutant suits) give the film a consistent, surreal dream-like quality that I believe children can fully identify with, thus their vivid memories of having seen the film even twenty years earlier.

Had I never seen the film a second time after my initial t.v. exposure of it in 1957-8 (in black and white, incidentally), I'd still hear that score and see the bubbling rock melting under the ray of the martian gun, and remember how friggin' hard it was to sleep after that haunting "Is it a dream this time or not?" ending. In so many ways this is a brilliant film that needs a full restoration. Can you imagine...? Maybe a commentary track with Jimmy Hunt and whoever else is still around. Does Wade Williams still own this exlusively? If so, I doubt there is much chance it will receive an expensive makeover.

 

[Jack Theakston]

No, in fact, there is a European company that owns rights over there that has been trying to initiate a restoration for a while, to no avail.