Invaders from Mars (1953)

 'Invaders from Mars' was directed by William Cameron Menzies, the man for whom the term 'production designer' was coined, and as a result this is a very production designee movie. It's great to look at, the color pops, the visual composition is often stark, the overall effect a charmingly dated kind of weird. There is a strong children's fantasy element to this, though at the time of its release some thought it too intense for little kids. Young Jimmy Hunt doesn't have too hard a time convincing some adults in authority that his parents have been body snatched by aliens (a full three years before that movie even came out), which makes for a nice change from the 'children not being believed in time' trope one might typically associate with stories like these. This movie was later remade in 1986 with Karen Black and Laraine Newman, I remember seeing part of that as a kid and it weirded me out. Interestingly the later version is not available through Amazon. This version gets **1/2 chiefly for creativity and visuals, there is very little to the acting and characters.