Phillip Kaufman’s remake of the 1956 Don Siegel classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a terrific example of a remake done right. It takes the basic premise of the original but uses themes and metaphors that suit the time period. Where as the original 1955 Jack Finney book and the Siegel film was seen as an allegory for communism and McCarthyism, Kaufman’s version can be interpreted as representing the fears that were going on in America at that time such as the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war raging on.
Also unlike both original the book and 1956 film which takes in small town America the story takes place in San Francisco however still manages to create the same fear and dread.
The story is the same as before. An alien race known as pods come to earth from their dying planet. They take the form of small pink flowers which sparks the interest of a laboratory scientist, played by Brooke Adams where it is then revealed that the toxins coming from said flowers start to spread throughout the city, making emotionless duplicates of the citizens and killing the real people in their sleep. Now it’s up to a small group to avoid being hunted by the alien shape shifters.
As already mentioned before what makes this version of invasion of the Body Snatchers so effective is that it stays through to the original film while going in its own direction. The movie has a more surreal tone with it’s hypnotic directing From Kaufman who make the movie more of a horror than science-fiction and is more visually shocking (the human faced dog is a terrifying moment). The performances are all spot on especially Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy as a scientist who serves as a voice of reason (similar to his most famous role of Dr spock from Star Trek) a very young Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright who is certainly no stranger to horror movies, appearing in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds as a child and just one year after this movie she would be dealing with another hostile alien life form again in Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers deserves it’s reputation as one of the greatest remakes of all time. It proves that just because you’re taking an idea that has already been done you can still be creative. This ranks along side The Right Stuff as Kaufman’s finest work as a director and is definitely recommended viewing for fans of horror and science-fiction.
film enthusiast blog 