Screamers: The Hunting

Philip K. Dick, (1928-1982), published the story “Second Variety” in the May, 1953 issue of “Space Science Fiction Magazine.” In 1995 Triumph Films released a motion picture adaptation of the tale called “Screamers.” Although the movie performed poorly among critics and at the box office, Reel One Entertainment and the Fries Film Company decided to mount a sequel. Miguel Tejada-Flores was brought back to write the screenplay based on an original story by Tom Berry. (Tejada-Flores had adapted a script by Dan O’Bannon for the first feature.) The writer did not seem to be aware that Philip K. Dick had written his own sequel to the story “Second Variety.” August Derleth published the story “Jon’s World” in his paperback anthology “Time to Come” in 1954. This story was not the inspiration for this new film.

This week’s movie was “Screamers: The Hunting” from Sony Pictures in 2009, directed by Sheldon Wilson. The original plan was for a theatrical release, but the movie went straight to home video instead. At the end of the first picture “Commander Joseph A. Hendricksson,” (Peter Weller), had escaped from Sirius 6B in an emergency shuttle. We now learn that during the flight to Earth he discovered that a Screamer was onboard his spacecraft, so he allowed it to burn up on reentry. For the next thirteen years Earth hears nothing from Sirius 6B, and it is assumed that all the humans are dead and that all the Screamers are inert. Then a distress signal comes from the planet. The spacecraft “Medusa” is dispatched to conduct a rescue mission led by “Commander Andy Sexton,” (Greg Bryk), who has secretly been assigned to retrieve the secrets of the Screamers. The main focus is on “Lieutenant Victoria Bronte,” (Gina Holden), who is actually Hendricksson’s daughter! The rescue team encounter a small band of survivors led by “Guy,” (Stephen Amell). After a Screamer drains the power cells of the “Medusa” the rescuers must search for replacements. They find these in the underground laboratory of “Eugene Orsow,” (Lance Henriksen), the scientist who invented the Screamers. They also learn that the newest variety of Screamers mix human and electronic components together. Guy and Victoria become lovers, and she learns that she is pregnant with a half-Screamer baby!

There are a few clever ideas here, and the production design and special effects work is quite good. Unfortunately the characters are rather bland and uninteresting and the movie just never catches fire. I didn’t expect much from this picture, and I didn’t get much. This movie is not worth wasting any time on.

In “Jon’s World” travelers go back in time to prevent the creation of the killing machines in the first place, a story that seems like an inversion of “The Terminator.” It probably wouldn’t have worked as a sequel to “Screamers.”