SCREAMERS (63)

Directed by: Christian Duguay

Starring: Peter Weller, Jennifer Rubin

The Pitch: In the future, in a mining colony on a war-torn planet, the colonists' secret weapons - the mysterious "screamers" - seem to have developed a life of their own...

Theo Sez: Maybe it's because the genre has been so debased in recent years, but it's a positive joy to come across an "honest" sci-fi movie, one that doesn't lose itself in big bangs or prosthetic effects but finds a new gloss on the most basic of sci-fi themes, Man's struggle to hold on to his humanity in the face of malevolent, usually technological Otherness. It may be the first since Abel Ferrara's BODY SNATCHERS, and unsurprisingly ends up as a variation on that film (and many others) - but, if it never really transcends genre, it remains full of pleasures. The surface is attractive enough, with its eerie setting of snowscapes and deserted cities and its hard-boiled, cynical hero ("You must be confusing me with someone who gives a shit"). But, as in any good B-movie, the real riches are in the interstices between the bits of story - little moments of weirdness, like the shape-shifting rock that turns into an insect ("If you're gonna be a rock, be a rock!" admonishes our hero), and, as befits a film that celebrates humanity in all its imperfections, a mischievous spirit of political incorrectness. This must be the first movie where the only way to avoid death (by radioactivity) is to light up a cigarette.