Some of the best science fiction films aren’t really about the future: they’re about the here and now. And there are few better examples of that Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The original 1956 film may be dated in its visuals, but it’s still utterly chilling in its depiction of a world where everyone looks normal but has lost their humanity. And the 1978 remake, which you can stream on Prime Video, does a fantastic job of updating the look without losing the chills.
The remake stars Donald Sutherland and takes the story from small-town America in the 1950s to San Francisco in the late 1970s, a setting that still feels relevant today. And it shares its claustrophobic, paranoid atmosphere with much of American cinema of the time, where filmmakers used films as a sickening mirror of real-life social decay. It’s not as scary now as it was back then, but in an age of radicalization on social media it’s surprisingly relevant. You can go online and find pod people almost instantly.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a well done remake
When you watch the original now, like a lot of ’50s films, it feels very hammy and a bit campy. The remake hasn’t dated too badly and has plenty of cringeworthy moments and a camera that prowls. There are few reviews online now, but many critics called the film a great example of a remake done right. rich said it was “a great remake for once, cleverly executed. Great performances and a killer ending that will stay with you forever don’t hurt either”, while Time-out said it put Brian DePalma’s films to shame. The Wall Street Journal said it “gives remakes a good name.”
The bell called the remake one of the scariest films of the 1970s, calling it “a gloriously creepy metaphor for modern life”. Don’t read the review yet if you want to avoid spoilers, as it goes into a lot of plot details. But it’s worth revisiting the film after reading The Ringer’s description of the sound design, which is particularly clever and which, the article concludes, means that “like the best horror films, Invasion of the Body Snatchers builds from a whisper to a shout”.
Writing in the AV club in a 2007 retrospective, Keith Phipps said: “Set at the intersection of post-Vietnam paranoia and the myopic introspection that became the hippie world’s most enduring cultural contribution, the Philip Kaufman-directed Invasion alternates social commentary with impeccably crafted fears.”
That social commentary is one of the reasons the film remains so successful, because it’s open to interpretation: it’s easy to see little people in which social, economic, or political movements you personally don’t like or understand.