Celebrating 70 years of Body Snatchers films, from the good (most of ’em!) to the bad (one specific one!)
Welcome to Reb00t! A series where I dig deep through the 2000’s to find all the horror remakes that we were inundated with over that weirdly bleak decade. Sometimes they’ll be good, sometimes they’ll be kinda terrible, sometimes they’ll be kinda great. In a few, rare cases, they’ll be better than the original! These are all my personal views, obviously, so feel free to tell me I’m insane in the comments.
This week, in honor of Halloween, I revisited all 4 of the Body Snatcher films, from 1956’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (still great!) to 2007’s The Invasion (yikes!)
The idea of being replaced, either through our consciousness or in a 1:1 body swap situation, is not a new fear in humanity. In societies dating all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, we have tales of these types of manifestations, be it the Doppelgänger or the Changeling or the Kitsune. It is a fear that cuts through history; the idea of being replaced by something that is not you.
In the modern era, no idea has better captured this fear than the Body Snatcher. First introduced in 1955 in Jack Finney’s book, The Body Snatchers, the aforementioned Body Snatchers are extraterrestrial beings that arrive on earth as seed pods, with the intention of replacing the human race. They kill silently, while we sleep, and take our place. They look, sound, and act just like us. Except there is something off; some lack of emotion, a blankness in the stare, an apathy in their words. You can’t put your finger on it, they are just no longer human. And soon, you won’t be either.
This new type of alien invaders immediately hit a chord with people, a terror born from both its ability to mimic and the impossibility of stopping it (can’t stay awake forever), and the book was an immediate hit, with a film adaptation coming out only a year after release.
And here, we see the first of the Body Snatcher films; 1956’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Directed by Don Siegel (who went on to direct a bevy of Clint Eastwood films), Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a film that has held up remarkably well over the last 70 years. Taking place in small town America, the film follows Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) as he begins to dig into a peculiar ailment that has swept through the town; people have started to accuse their friends and loved ones of being “replaced”. This investigation soon uncovers a more terrifying truth as the world begins to unravel and chaos fills the streets.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is an incredibly tense sci-fi thriller that leans into a slow boiling dread in the first half, before exploding into pure chaos in the back half. The dread here is palatable, as you slowly watch a small, idyllic town become more and more changed. There is really no explanation to why it is happening, just that something malevolent is afoot. It isn’t until the wider reveal of the true scope of the invasion that the film really escalates into full pandemonium, as our small band of survivors are chased through the streets and into the hills, looking for any way to warn the world about what is coming.
It’s a bleak film about the dangers of conformity (which quickly became a condemnation of Communism in the public conscious, even though both the director and writer have rebuked this), and how quickly one can give their entire existence over to something outside of themselves. It’s also just absolutely fantastic pulpy sci-fi fiction writing (up until that tacked on happy ending; just a pitch perfect case of Hays Code butchery).
Which is probably why it only took about 20 years before this got its first remake (or, replacement, if you want to stay on theme), with Phillip Kaufman’s 1978’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. This is probably the one most of y’all have seen, with a final shot that has been spoiled for generations*. Boasting a star studded cast, including Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, and Leonard Nimoy (and Robert Duvall in one of the strangest cameos ever), the 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers follows the plot of the original pretty closely, outside of changing the location and ending (more on that in a second). What it does do better, though, is tension and paranoia, as this ratchets it considerably through tight camera work and a droning, dread-inducing score.
Just like the original, the first half of ‘78 is spent growing the tension of the situation, as both Sutherland and Adams start to see those around them changing in quiet, hard to pinpoint ways. While the “pod people” are a little more pronounced in their characteristics here (the original pretty much just had them act the same with “dead eyes”), it helps add to the eeriness of the setting, as we watch the bustling city of San Francisco slowly become a ghost town. The way the change unfolds in the background really leans into the helplessness of the situation; as our doomed heroes try to get an understanding of what they’re up against, we can silently see them losing the battle in the empty streets around them.
Then, when the masks fall and the pod people reveal themselves, this takes off, and becomes an all out sprinting chase sequence, as Sutherland and co are chased up and down the streets and hills of San Francisco by a legion of screeching creatures, and members of the group slowly begin to be taken over by the pods one by one.
This all leads to one of the remake’s best improvements over the original, and that is in its ending. Without spoiling it, I think the remake not only better illustrates the original idea of the “pod people” (the idea that a “pod person” is just one that goes through the motions of life), but also makes sure to leave you feeling like shit as you walk out of the theater.
With two film adaptations, one would think the concept would’ve been covered well enough. Well, just like the creatures within, this story can’t help but be replicated. The next time the Body Snatchers attempted world domination was in 1993, with Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers. Probably the least known of the Body Snatchers films, it is a genuine diamond in the rough.
Sporting a pretty crazy pedigree behind the camera (story by Larry Cohen, screenplay by Stuart Gordon, and directed by Abel Ferrara), Body Snatchers departs its predecessors in many different ways. First, the perspective shifts from a single man who is leading an investigation against the creatures to that of a young girl who is watching the invasion unfold around her and her family. Second, the film pulls away from both small town America and the big city, relocating to a military base, where conformity is already expected, with the aliens better able to hide amongst the humans.
Third, this is an out-and-out horror film; while the first two were tense scifi stories with horror elements, Ferrara’s version is a deeply mean little slice of body horror. Unlike the first two adaptations that focus on the outside world slowly succumbing before descending on our hero’s, Body Snatchers is about watching the invasion unfold from within, as Marti (Gabrielle Anwar) watches her own family and friends begin to change around her, her youth and inexperience making her powerless against it all.
By the time the world explodes into violence, with Meg Tilly giving one of the scariest performances ever (“where are you going to go?” speech leading into that scream is an all-timer horror scene) and people being gunned down in the streets, Marti has already suffered incredible loss. This is truly a deeply mean film, where nobody is safe, with a final death that rivals the Sutherland scream in its intensity. While this does sorta/kinda have a “happy ending”**, it makes sure to really drive in the whole “this girls life is ruined” aspect right to the final frame.
3 for 3, which is genuinely crazy for any series of films, let alone 3 remakes. Going into the aughts, with a world in turmoil, it seemed like a no brainer for a 4th at bat, and with both Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig starring, what could go wrong?
Yikes, y’all. After a stellar run of 3 classics, the Body Snatchers series finally starts to lose its replicating muster with 2007’s The Invasion. The Invasion is a complete and utter misunderstanding of not only the core concept of the creatures, but also what makes the actual story work. Instead of an alien species that replicates and replaces, the creatures of The Invasion operate like a virus that clouds the minds of its victims, using them more like puppets than becoming their own separate being (which leads into the most annoying aspect of this remake; more in a second). Instead of a slow growing invasion, the creatures of The Invasion go right to the top of the government first, deflating any sort of growing dread all the previous had. The creatures here are also too wordy, having way too many monologues about their purpose and why they are here. They’re just total bores.
It has a few interesting things going for it; the whole dog element is a nice added bit of nastiness to a weirdly neutered affair, and I’ll give it credit for being the only one of this films to lean into the “maybe the aliens have the right idea” concept, with the Iraq War looming heavily in the background.
The real killing blow here, though, is the ending. Not only does this have a happy ending, but it bends over backwards to make sure everyone gets a happy ending. See, since the aliens here are a virus, that means they can be cured, which means that by films end, nothing has actually been achieved, or really anything changed; all the same characters are alive, sans a few dogs, the alien invasion really has no lasting side effects. What was the point of this whole thing, then?
Even if the 2007 was a misfire, the overall series of Body Snatcher films are surprisingly great, from the creeping dread of the ‘56 version, to the paranoid sweatiness of the ‘78 version, to the screeching horror of the ‘93 version (and the weird neutered nature of the ‘07 version). And, hey, with the world the way it is today, with such division and paranoia due to both a crumbling economy and AI “replicating” our efforts, it feels like just the right time for the Body Snatchers to rear their heads once again (but, with maybe less “immune, plot-armored kid” energy and more “throw a toddler from a helicopter” energy).
*I am of the specific age group where the “final face” was specifically spoiled for me in that Britney Spears episode of South Park, which also spoiled the ending of The Wicker Man, as well.
**On this latest rewatch, I couldn’t help but think of that Patrick Stewart “Apache Helicopter” bit from the first Ted during that helo annihilation. RIP.
