As I've said, sometimes, especially on a Friday night. we just want something stupid. Screamers: The Hunting (2009) really fit that bill. Roughly speaking, it's an Alien/Aliens pastiche, based on a Philip K. Dick short story (very loosely, I'd guess).
It starts a small band of survivors getting massacred by robot buzzsaws with metal tails. Then we move on to our group of seven or eight good-looking young space men and women coming out of hibernation. Then we get the exposition dump. This planet used be overpopulated, so they invented some robots to kill everyone who didn't have the proper tab (or tag? I'm a little fuzzy on all this, because I was riffing over the start). But they killed off everyone, and went extinct when they had killed off all targets. Now, our team is responding to a distress call. That never ends badly...
On the planet, they discover that the tabs don't work so well anymore. They also get attacked by the survivors. You see, the screamers (who usually look like buzzsaws with metal tails) have evolved to look like humans, and the survivors don't trust the newcomers. These encounters manage to kill at least a couple of the space team, in very gory ways.
They get a look at a screamer factory, which has sort of Alien egg hatchery vibes. Then they finally get together with the survivors, although the crazy girl still doesn't trust them. And they meet Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Aliens) who invented screamers, along with dad of cute girl from space team. You see, she went on this mission because her father was on the last one (I think this movie is a sequel) and suicided when returning. Henriksen tells her not to worry, there was probably a screamer on board that he want to make sure didn't get to Earth.
Blah blah, everyone dies except cute girl and head survivor, and they fall in love and go back to Earth. Guess what? No, go ahead and guess.
Mostly this movie is just standard low-budget SF. The main expense was gore effects, and if you enjoy a good decapitation, this might be worth your while. The Dickian aspects are fairly muted: The paranoid concept of robots masquerading as human sort of holds off until the last act, and is barely visible. The crazy girl is a sort of Dick stock character - she calls cool or amazing things "unreal" as a hint to her character. The mad scientist who is both lethally irresponsible and somehow sympathetic is another - Dr. Bloodmoney, for ex. But if you are looking for a work of philosophical art, skip it.
In conclusion, Lance Henrikson isn't the only name actor involved. Steve Amell from Arrow is one of the space crew. I couldn't tell you which one. Fortunately for him, he blends right in.
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