Screamers: The Hunting (2009) (V)

Director:

Sheldon Wilson

Writers:

Tom Berry (story)
Philip K. Dick (original story)

Release Date:

17 February 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The Perfect Weapon Is Now The Ultimate Killing Machine

Plot:

A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which...

Plot Keywords:

Sequel | Direct To Video Sequel To Theatrical Movie | Second Part

Cast

Gina Holden	...	Lt. Victoria Bronte
Jana Pallaske	...	Schwartz
Lance Henriksen	...	Orsow
Greg Bryk	...	Cmdr. Andy Sexton
Christopher Redman	...	Rafe Danielli
Tim Rozon	...	Madden
Dave Lapommeray	...	Sgt. Romulo (as Dave La Pommeray)
Jody Richardson	...	Soderquist
Stephen Amell	...	Guy
Holly O'Brien	...	Hannah
Darryl Hopkins	...	Dwight
Steve Lush	...	Bryce
Stephen Patrick Dunn	...	Teenage Screamer Boy 1 (as Stephen Dunn)
Justin Madol	...	Teenage Screamer Boy 2
Sarah Small	...	Teenage Screamer Girl

Also Known As:

Screamers 2 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sci-fi creature violence and gore.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA | UK:18 | Singapore:R21 | Argentina:13 | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Pope Productions

Trivia:

The interior walls of the bunker are made up of pie and muffin forms as well as cardboard egg crates turned upside-down and painted gray. The factory tables and shelves are stainless steel kitchen equipment.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The inside of the space ship has a stairwell with an exit sign and a hand railing.

Movie Connections:

Follows Screamers (1995)

Not An Original Bone In This Substandard Sequel

I caught the first "Screamers" in the theater and enjoyed the heck out of it. Director Christian Duguay had the foresight to use some decent actors (Peter Weller chiefly among them), paid attention to fashioning a politically charged story and did his best to deliver a decent film. Hey, it wasn't perfect, but he succeeded more than not.

Now comes Sheldon Wilson who tries to make up for a ridiculous story with some interesting visuals. If you give bad actors some good dialogue or even good actors some bad dialogue, you sometimes get lucky. However, when you give bad actors some bad dialogue, riddle a plot with inconsistencies, gaping holes and a lack of any logic while making it all extremely easy to pick out every twist and turn to come, then you get "Screamers: The Hunting".

Things are still bad on Sirius 6B and when a distress signal is sent to Earth, the Alliance dispatches a few 20-somethings to seek out any survivors and bring them back home. Speeding their efforts is some sort of super storm that's going to wipe out all life on the planet, giving them a couple of days to complete their mission.

Along the way they'll meander around, discover some survivors, run, discover that Screamers have gotten aboard their ship (how, exactly, is never disclosed), run back to the survivors, get the majority of the survivors slaughtered, leave with someone meant to be a red herring (right), meander some more while looking for fuel cells and... Let's just leave it at lots of meandering, lots of banal dialogue, lots of bad acting and a thankless appearance by Lance Henrickson. Why didn't they put Henrickson in charge of the mission? The man has presence and the young crew members simply do not.

And the end? It's as predictable as the rest of the film. Oh, and don't forget to count how many times the characters mention the word "screamers". Screenwriter Miguel Tejada-Flores seems to think it's a really cool word and repeats it every opportunity he gets.

I was extremely excited to learn that somebody picked up the story again and moved forward with it. And after watching "Screamers: The Hunting", I think Sheldon Wilson owes fans of the original film an apology.