Screamers: The Hunting

Sony

R4 DVD

Screamers was an innovative and impressive Sci Fi film made in 1995 starring Peter Weller. Set on Sirius 6B in the year 2078, Col. Hendrickson (Weller) leads a team of soldiers trying to make peace with the opposition, the New Economic Bloc. The major enemy however is not human, but a robotic device known as a screamer. Originally devised to kill off anyone without a “tag” and set to resolve a civil dispute between the owners of the mining settlement and rebel workers, these self replicating killing machines developed independent intelligence and began to evolve into new and dangerous forms. Screamers was a surprisingly success for a limited budget film and many years later is now followed by Screamers: The Hunting.

Set thirteen years after Sirius 6B has been supposed wiped clean by civil war, Screamers:The Hunting is quite an effective B Grade Sci Fi tale. A distress call reaches earth from Sirius 6B and a team is sent to rescue whoever is left alive on the planet. However, there is a major hitch, as they come out of space “hibernation” the crew find they only have six days to complete the rescue before a meteor storm will destroy all life on the planet.

As they undertake their search for survivors, the captain of the team recognizes the dollar value of the screamer technology and downloads it to a portable hard drive. Human greed of course has consequences and during the process he unknowingly activates a lone screamer which then makes its way to the space ship. On arrival it makes mincemeat of the sole member of the crew remaining on board and drains the ships power supply using it to reactivate the screamers production line. Screamers are now produced en masse and ready to colonize Sirius 6B and beyond.

The battle lines are drawn between the surviving members of the crew, a small band of feral Sirius B rebels and the screamers. However, all is not what it seems as now the screamers can create hybrid human screamers and the question as to who can be trusted remains unresolved.

Screamers: The Hunting is not especially original. It pretty well uses every cliché in Sci Fi history. Taking its lead from the original film it then grafts on aspects of the Alien series, Predator and even Underworld. At the same time the CGI and cinematography cannot be faulted and it is surprisingly successful in creating a very suspenseful viewing experience.

The acting is reasonable if not great, sometimes it is a little wooden, but the character development and team interaction works well. Lance Hendrickson is a nice touch, but he isn’t on-screen long enough to make his presence really felt.

Screamers is a fun and enjoyable Sci Fi film which while derivative has enough action to make it worth the DVD rental price.

The extra is a behind-the-scenes Featurette.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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