This smart, involving sci-fi picture, set in an Ohio high school, pays homage to several genre faves, notably Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing, but also The Breakfast Club, with peer group pressure and disaffected teens rebelling against 'alien' adult authority figures. The neatly worked scenario pits a disparate group of Herrington High students against teachers who've been transformed by an alien parasite into smily, emotionless drones. Forced to work together, the kids put aside t find out more...

This movie is about as good as it gets from John Hughes. The plot revolves around the rather farsighted premise (this is 1983, folks!) that a young high school punk hacks into the national defence network (the old internet) and starts off a global nuclear incident. As Cold War paranoia abounds him and his girlfriend have to convince a disbelieving US military that it's all a big mistake. Sounds all a bit hokey, I know, but where the film lifts itself above the normal teen trite Hughes has bee find out more...