Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Director:

Philip Kaufman

Writers:

Jack Finney (novel)
W.D. Richter (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 December 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Get some sleep

Plot:

In San Francisco, a group of people discover the human race is being replaced one by one, with clones devoid of emotion.

Plot Keywords:

Flashback | Murder | Banjo | Lost Love | Dating

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Matthew Bennell
Brooke Adams	...	Elizabeth Driscoll
Jeff Goldblum	...	Jack Bellicec
Veronica Cartwright	...	Nancy Bellicec
Leonard Nimoy	...	Dr. David Kibner
Art Hindle	...	Dr. Geoffrey Howell, DDS
Lelia Goldoni	...	Katherine Hendley
Kevin McCarthy	...	Running Man
Don Siegel	...	Taxi Driver
Tom Luddy	...	Ted Hendley
Stan Ritchie	...	Stan
David Fisher	...	Mr. Gianni
Tom Dahlgren	...	Detective
Garry Goodrow	...	Dr. Boccardo
Jerry Walter	...	Restaurant Owner

Also Known As:

Demonerna (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Ihmispaholaiset (Finland) [fi]
Invasió dels ultracossos, La (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Invasión de los ultracuerpos, La (Spain) [es]
Invasion des profanateurs, L' (France) (dubbed version) [fr]
Invasores de Corpos, Os (Brazil) [pt]
Invazija tjelokradica (Croatia) [hr]
Invazija trecih bica (Serbia) [sr]
Körperfresser kommen, Die (West Germany) [de]
Makavria eisvoli (Greece) [el]
Plishut Hotfay Ha-Goofote (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Terrore dallo spazio profondo (Italy) [it]
Testrablók inváziója (Hungary) [hu]
Världsrymden anfaller (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (2000) (uncut) (DVD) | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:16 (orginal rating) | Finland:K-18 (1979) (uncut) | West Germany:16 | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 (1987) (cut) (video) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Australia:M | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

1227 Montgomery Street, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Solofilm

Trivia:

At the beginning of the film, as the alien spores rain down on earth, you see them presumably landing on the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco - the headquarters of what was then the parent company of United Artists, which produced the film.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The cameraman is reflected in the phone booth window while Matthew Bennell is inside.

Quotes:

Elizabeth Driscoll: Yep, Boccardo's pills. He eats it like candy... or used to. Take some.
Matthew Bennell: What are they?
Elizabeth Driscoll: Speed. They'll keep us awake.
Matthew Bennell: How many are you suppose to take?
Elizabeth Driscoll: It says take one.
Matthew Bennell: Take five.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Watching the Detectives (2007)

Soundtrack:

Amazing Grace

Urban Paranoia and Social Alienation Trigger the Fear Factor in a Classic Take on the Pod People

I haven't seen Philip Kaufman's ("The Right Stuff") supremely chilling 1978 movie in thirty years, so the 2007 DVD is a great excuse to revisit one of the most atmospheric and thematically intriguing sci-fi thrillers I have ever seen. Ostensibly a remake of the low-budget 1956 classic, this version foregoes the former's allegorical references to the then-prevalent Red Scare in favor of a post-Watergate mindset of escalating urban paranoia set most appropriately in the Mecca of acceptable non-conformity, San Francisco. Kaufman and cinematographer Michael Chapman ("Raging Bull") effectively evoke an off-kilter world overtaken by an encroaching sense of disquiet with a heavy use of crooked camera angles and elongated shadows that make the film downright noirish. Moreover, thanks to W.D. Richter's sharp screenplay, the film has a hip, almost blackly comic tone that makes a nice contrast to the scarifying situation being depicted. Overall, I find this film more entertaining than the original.

The macabre plot begins with health inspector Matthew Bennell and his colleague Elizabeth Driscoll, who encounter a strange, unidentifiable flower they see growing everywhere. At the same time, people all over the city, including Elizabeth's boyfriend and the local dry cleaner, are acting peculiarly distant and devoid of emotion. It eventually dawns on Matthew and Elizabeth that aliens in the form of plant pods are slowly replacing the local populace with robotic duplicates. Accompanied by their mud-bath-owning friends Jack and Nancy Bellicec, they are determined to find a way to escape the city before they fall asleep and become transformed into pod-derived automatons. What makes this version particularly compelling is the palpable idea that you can live in a city amid thousands of indifferent strangers and see how easily an increasing army of pod people can infiltrate it without much resistance. Even though the method of dehumanization is far-fetched, the theme resonates because the macro-level trend is happening in a more figurative sense even more now than in 1978.

You wouldn't expect the acting to be noteworthy in what may seem like a genre thriller, but the offbeat cast is razor-sharp. As Matthew, Donald Sutherland effectively plays an uncharacteristically sympathetic part, and his eccentric screen persona works particularly well in this context. Coming off of Terence Malick's acclaimed "Days of Heaven", Brooke Adams, with her distinctively throaty voice, gives a smart, watchful performance as Elizabeth, the character who first notices that something is amiss. The interplay between Sutherland and Adams has a quirky-funny chemistry that brings an unexpected comic element to the film. Jeff Goldblum ("The Fly") and Veronica Cartwright ("Alien") are no strangers to this genre, and they play Jack and Nancy with customary skill. Even Leonard Nimoy lends credibility as the know-it-all psychiatrist David Kibner, who tries to convince everyone that the strange goings-on reflect a mass psychological delusion. We know that's not true, and the scenes of the pod transformations, especially the key one in Bennell's garden, have that uniquely phantasmagoric effect that manages to be gross, scary and oddly amusing at the same time. Ironically, the film sags somewhat during the overextended chase scenes, and the piercing screams of the pods seem like a conventional touch for such a unique work. However, the final few minutes are well worth the wait. I live a few minutes away from the locale of that final shot, and I can't tell you how many times my friends and I have replicated that scene.

The two-disc 2007 DVD is a welcome package of an under-appreciated film. The first disc provides the movie with an optional commentary track from Kaufman, a holdover from the original 1998 DVD. Kaufman is relatively low-key in his recollections, but he provides insight into the film's underlying themes, the creativity he had to encourage to produce the low-budget special effects, the challenge of using San Francisco locations, and the inclusion of cameos from Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel, the star and director of the 1956 original. The second disc contains four featurettes, as well as the original theatrical trailer. The first is a cheeky retrospective look at the production, the sixteen-minute "Re-Visitors from Outer Space, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pod", which describes Kaufman's rationale and approach in updating the 1956 original. Kaufman, Sutherland and Cartwright, among others, are interviewed. The second short is not as interesting, "Practical Magic: The Special Effects Pod", only five minutes long, which gives a cursory look at how some of the special effects were created before the convenience of CGI. Sound designer Ben Burtt is the subject of the third short, "The Man Behind the Scream: The Sound Effects Pod", as he explains how he created the gaseous pod-birthing noises and the unique scream of the pod people when they identify unaltered humans. Chapman discloses the influence of film noir in his camera-work in the five-minute "The Invasion Will Be Televised: The Cinematography Pod".