Scariest Scary Movie #30 – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy)

They’re coming to get you! They’re already here! YOU’RE NEXT!

Quick Plot: Alien beings take over Earth, one sleeping human at a time. The alien spores create duplicate pod people, devoid of emotion, and destroy the original body. Duplicating factories spring up and the invasion spreads. A brave group of human survivors, led by Dr. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), looks for a way to stop the spread while escaping detection. But they have to sleep sometime and, one by one, they too are transformed.

Scariest Moment: The pod people emit a shrill cry whenever they sense a human presence. The very last scene with the remaining survivors…

Final Say: There is some contention whether or not the 1978 remake surpasses the original version. Both films play with paranoia and social commentary. But where the original focused on McCarthyism and small town fears, the remake’s themes of urban alienation and consumerism still seem relevant today. In an age of mp3s and video games, internet surfing, over-medicated children, and cheap mega-stores, perhaps there really is no fighting the invasion of the body snatchers.

Airing: October 28, 6pm – Encore 4 Mystery (for additional dates and times, check the movie listings database at channelguidemag.com)

3 Comments

  1. There was The Faculty, with Elijah Wood, which wasn’t exactly a remake, but it definitely played with the ideas from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and even directly referenced the story at one point.

  2. This one was a remake itself of a 1950s version which was good too. There was also a recent remake with Nicole Kidman called The Invasion. I think there was at least one other one in between, but not sure.

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