Day 22: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I had only seen the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which, while impressive for its time, has nothing on this reboot.
This is exactly what a remake should be, taking what worked about the core concept of the original, then running wild with it, which is exactly what this tense, disgusting, terrifying film does.
If the original Body Snatchers was about the fear of communism, the 1978 version is about the fear and distrust of absolutely everyone that began after the Vietnam War and Watergate.
The first half is subtle, interesting, and often funny character building, introducing us to the stellar cast of Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, and Brooke Adams (who is incredibly talented and should be getting a lot more work) and also slowly introducing the body snatching. The second half is when things really kick off and the film becomes a race against time.
The cinematography is very 70's, with a lot of handheld camera and an overall seemingly-sloppy style, but there's actually a lot of wonderful subtle things to pick out in nearly every scene, showing that Philip Kaufman clearly had a specific vision in mind.
The ending is not only terrifying, but truly hopeless, the darkest possible way a film like this could end.
I don't know if I love it as much as my other favorite sci-fi horror films The Thing and Alien, but I would definitely say it comes close.
No comments:
Post a Comment