Don Siegel’s low budget science fiction hit, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, works as a sublime and terrifying horror story, while masquerading as a science fiction tale of wonder. The wonder that it contains is horror of evil alien beings, murdering humans and taking over their bodies. It’s ingenious premise allowed its producers to work on a limited budget (less than $400,000) while retaining a realistic feel to everything going on in its fantastical tale. For this reason the film has been oft copied and remade by countless directors and with much larger budgets. Even the most successful of these remakes pale against the original.
One of the prime reasons for this success was the chaotic and kinetic visual style of its director (Siegel), who would go on to become one of filmdom’s premier directors of action. Siegel had a very documentary like style in filming his stories as his camera captures realistic and life like images of his movie’s characters and his action sequences are tight and fast paced leaving little fat or filler space. The man knew how to film chase scenes, whether with cars airplanes, or as in this film, by foot. Combining realistic images with exciting action sequences depicting extreme danger serves the feel of terror that this film invokes.
The films follows Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) as he returns home to his small Californian town and finds that all his friends and neighbors are slowly and insidiously becoming cardboard copies of themselves. At first he is warned by other innocent people that something strange is going on, until very quickly there are less and less of these innocent people left. His investigation becomes awareness and his awareness becomes shock until finally his shock turns into horror and he attempts to escape. The title of the film takes away any surprise that may have existed at the beginning as the audience realizes that the townsfolk are not townsfolk any longer but replacements made by the body snatchers from outer space.
This premise allows the film to show monstrosity and horror through visuals of normal people acting like possessed devils such as spooky scenes of nonstop mowing of lawns and empty but produce filled stores. By the time a mass number of these zombies are chasing after our hero, we believe they are real monsters. This has an effect of real suspense and trepidation that results in some extremely effective scares. This is horror at its best.
One interesting side note to the movie is that the plot of the film reflects a political ambiguity that playfully interact with our beliefs. For this reason some people find the plot anti-communist, as the pod people (as the newly taken over humans are referred to), reject individualism in favor of collectivism and the elimination of behavioral or economic differences. Other see the plot as anti-McCarthyism (from the McCarthy communist witch hunts of the previous decade), as it depicts individuals betrayed by their former friends and hunted down by a united majority as to assert supremacy with the more dominant political system. The fact that two separate and opposite viewpoints can each identify with the plots premise attests to its power and effect making this amazing film unforgettable.
Hollywood tacked on a prologue and epilogue to the movie in order to give it a more optimistic end. Other than those irritable add-ons, the movie, at 80 fast paced minutes, does not contain a wasted shot. Enjoy it and ignore the tacked on end.
1001 Movies before you die 