Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
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98% of critics liked it
(40 reviews) -
82% of users liked it
(17,603 ratings)
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 metaphor or enjoyed as a fine low-budget suspense movie, and it works well either way. Kevin McCarthy… More 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 metaphor 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, Rovi
- Directed By
- Don Siegel
- Written By
- Geoffrey Homes
- Genres
- Mystery & Suspense, Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy
PG,
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1956 Wide
- On DVD
- Jun 26, 1998
- Studio
- Republic Pictures Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Few modern-day movies are more genuinely frightening.
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Variety Staff, Variety
This tense, offbeat piece of science-fiction is occasionally difficult to follow due to the strangeness of its scientific premise. Action nevertheless is increasingly exciting.
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Don Druker, Chicago Reader
Don Siegel's superb little effort, with its matter-of-fact isolation of hero Kevin McCarthy (ironic, no?) from the smarmy complacency of a small town gone to hell -- and way beyond -- points the way to his gripping action films of the 60s and 70s.
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
It's still a chilling picture, gaining over Phil Kaufman's smart remake by virtue of its intimate small town setting, and it has one of the greatest endings ever filmed.
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Jamie Graham, Total Film
Don Siegel's taut, bleak, noir-flavoured picture is arguably the science-fiction B-movie of the 1950s, an age when screens glowed with the atomic threat and undulated with scuttling, supersized bugs.
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Cast
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Kevin McCarthy
as Dr. Miles Bennel
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Dana Wynter
as Becky Driscoll
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Larry Gates
as Dr. Dan Kauffmann
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King Donovan
as Jack
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Carolyn Jones
as Theodore
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Whit Bissell
as Dr. Hill
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Jean Willes
as Sally
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Ralph Dumke
as Nick
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Tom Fadden
as Uncle Ira Lentz
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Virginia Christine
as Wilma Lentz
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Kenneth Patterson
as Driscoll
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Guy Way
as Sam Janzek
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Eileen Stevens
as Mrs. Grimaldi
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Beatrice Maude
as Grandma
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Jean Andren
as Aunt Eleda Lentz
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Everett Glass
as Pursey
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Dabbs Greer
as Mac
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Pat O'Malley
as Man Carrying Baggage
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Guy Rennie
as Proprietor
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Richard Deacon
as Dr. Harvey Bassett
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Harry J. Vejar
as With Man Carrying Baggage
- Don Siegel
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Robert Clark
as Jimmy Grimaldi
