Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Carolyn Jones, Dana Wynter, Don Siegel, Jean Willes, Kevin McCarthy

Don Siegel's classic exercise in psychological science fiction has often been interpreted as a cautionary fable about the blacklisting hysteria of the McCarthy era. It can be read as a political metap...( read more  read more... )hor or enjoyed as a fine low-budget suspense movie, and it works well either way. Kevin McCarthy stars as Miles Bennel, a doctor in the small California community of Santa Mira, where several patients begin reporting that their loved ones don't seem to be themselves lately. They look the same but seem cold, emotionally distant, and somehow unfamiliar. The longer Miles looks into these reports, the more stock he places in them, and in time he makes a shocking discovery: aliens from another world are taking over Santa Mira, one citizen at a time. Emissaries from a distant planet have sent massive seed pods containing creatures that can assume the exact physical likeness of anyone they choose. When Santa Mirans go to sleep, the pod creatures take on the shape of their victims and then destroy their bodies. The aliens may look the same, but they possess no human emotions and, like plants, are concerned only with propagating themselves and eventually subsuming the earth. Needless to say, Miles and his friends are terrified, but since it's hard to tell who's a person and who's a pod, they're at a loss for what to do, especially when it seems that there are increasingly more aliens than humans. Invasion of the Body Snatchers builds tension slowly and steadily, dealing not in the shock of bug-eyed monsters common to other 1950s science-fiction movies but in the unnerving possibility that the enemy is among us -- and impossible to tell from our allies. The ultra-paranoid conclusion of Siegel's original cut was softened by Allied Artists, who added a framing device that suggested help was on the way. This coda was as effective in blunting the film's grim conclusion as giving a Band-Aid to a beheading victim; few films of the era make it more painfully clear that for these people (and maybe for ourselves), there's no turning back and no way home. Keep an eye peeled for a bit part by soon-to-be-legendary Western director Sam Peckinpah, who plays a meter reader and also (uncredited) helped write the screenplay. Based on a novel by Jack Finney, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was remade in 1978 by Philip Kaufman and in 1993 by Abel Ferrara (as Body Snatchers); and its influence can be felt from The Stepford Wives (1975) to The X-Files.~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Id: 10904434

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    November 11, 2009
    SirPant
    Don Siegel's original Body Snatchers paved the way for so many horror/Sci-fi classics. It's not my favourite version but it is one of my favourite B-movies from the era, mainly due to the realistic performances that were slightly more convincing than many others of the time.
  • ceWEBrity
    January 30, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    Campy, didactic 1950s sci-fi fun. Some of the dialogue has become unavoidably hilarious but it only hones the B-movie sensibilities. The pacing is fantastic for a film of its era and the acting is alarmingly strong. Absolutely required viewing for anyone with even a cursory inter...( read more)est in the genre: this is the progenitor, the big daddy.
  • bradwest
    January 6, 2009
    bradwest
    Great communism allegory, but also quite creepy in its own right.

    The moody B&W night photography is perfect for setting up other worldly doings located right in your neighborhood.
  • QueenCityFilms
    March 6, 2008
    QueenCityFilms
    Holy shizzzz I didn't know this was directed by Don Siegel - fuck I might just raise this rating for the shit of it...he's an amazing director
  • harrycaul
    October 16, 2007
    harrycaul
    The greatest of all the '50s sci-fi B-movies, which is probably why Hollywood continues to remake it on a regular basis. This one will never be bettered.
  • eryri
    December 19, 2009
    eryri
    Wonderful classic 50's sci-fi movie.
  • jackgbowman
    October 28, 2009
    jackgbowman
    the original and great
  • g0y
    October 27, 2009
    g0y
    Ain't got nothing on Kaufman's remake. This is so cheesy I could hear mice under the floor. Am I the only one that finds obvious allegories devoid of escapism?
  • ldenker73
    October 15, 2009
    ldenker73
    Cult classic, you will never want to go to sleep again.
  • HarleenQuinzel
    September 18, 2009
    HarleenQuinzel
    This adaptation is the closest to Jack Finney's novel, I believe, and supremely effective in creating a sense of isolation and hopelessness. It would have been much better, in my opinion, had the film stopped with our protagonist on the highway, but, that's just me.

    This flick ...( read more)holds up amazingly well, and there are still parts in this movie that genuinely creep me out. For one is the discovery of the pods and the shell-versions of the characters that kind of plop themselves out. The height of this flick, though, comes in the ill-fated kiss that Jack share with Becky ... oh man.
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