Exploring War of the Worlds in Film

From Spielberg to The Asylum and Beyond…

©Paramount Pictures

H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, first serialized in 1897 in Pearson’s Magazine and later published as a novel, stands as a foundational work of science fiction. Its depiction of an attack on our planet by a murderous and technologically superior race from Mars — an entirely new concept at the time — has fascinated readers and filmmakers alike, setting the stage for a new subgenre of science fiction: the alien invasion.

The Invasion Begins

Despite War of the Worlds’ literary success, film and TV adaptations of the story have varied greatly in quality. It wasn’t until the 1950s, in the wake of UFO hysteria and post-war anxieties, that the invasion genre found its footing in American cinema. While some groundwork had already been laid by Orson Welles and his infamous The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938, public fears, fueled by events like the 1947 Roswell incident and the rising paranoia of the Cold War, provided fertile ground for alien invasion narratives.