Alrighty! I’m back to talking about more films. Last year, I focused on the sub-genre film noir and it’s evolution. This time, I’ve decided to look at different kind of sci-fi films. Well, the ones where the aliens are in the forefront. Specifically, where they’re the invaders and the pacifists. It’s always interesting to see just how different filmmakers interpret that concept and present it. The films that I’ll be talking about are adaptations and original concepts, so let’s start off with this one.
1. The Invaders
Based on the story by Jack Finney and is a remake of the 1956 original. I’ve decided to look at this one due to it being shot in the 70s and just seeing what led up to the very famous last shot. Well, the film is straightforward plot wise. One would expect that the aliens would use a weapon on Earth and soon duplicates would appear. It doesn’t go down like that. Instead, we see from the start that the aliens look unlike anything we’ve seen, just spore like creatures.
They drift in space until they land on Earth and begin to appear as flowers. Just seeing the woman and school kids pick at the flowers in the bush lays the trap. From there, we follow both Matthew and Elizabeth: a health inspector and a scientist investigate a strange behavior that is affecting the people in San Francisco. If there’s one thing that makes this one different at that point in time is that it has a unique take on the alien invasion model.
Sort of like in War of the Worlds where the Martians are seemingly invincible but are defeated by common germs. This one is an inverse where the aliens take a form as something innocuous as a flower and soon sprout a hybrid copy. Just how the film starts and progress where the threat is seemingly unstoppable to the point where it starts to be almost anxiety ridden. Like, everything in San Francisco seemingly looks normal only when people are just emotionless.
I like how the characters are just trying to get the help that they need. Both Matthew and Elizabeth start to realize what’s happening where they involve their friends. It was crazy seeing Jeff Goldblum in a movie and still age well for how old he is. More so how seeing Spock himself Leonard Nimoy try to assure to the main characters that everything is fine. That’s only confounding and tragic is seeing his character pop up later.
I think this is one of the rare examples of a bio-horror film and a body horror movie. Bio-horror in a sense where an unknown entity is rained down and starts to affect a person symbiotically. Or just seeing how the spores slowly duplicate someone while they’re sleeping gives the intensity where the characters must be awake. I’m glad we see it happen, but also just gives a clear idea that anyone can be a pod person.
As far as having a grounded and unorthodox approach to the story, I feel that the themes are resonated in a more contemporary setting. I feel that the moment when the person becomes a new alien hybrid is supposed to represent just the coming of the time. And how regular humans are trying to escape or inevitably embrace change where they don’t want to lose themselves. It gets even darker near the end.
I might as well talk about the last shot of the film. This is one of those rare films where the good guys don’t win and when all hope’s lost. Just seeing Matthew seemingly embracing being a pod person by being emotionless gives us that fake assurance that he’s in disguise. When a friend of his sees him, “Matthew” lets out a guttural shriek and points at her. Just seeing his friend Nancy cry and shout and the cut to the credits with no music really cements that humanity lost. There’s no other way to even execute that move without being divisive. If there’s one aspect of why the film is great, it’s just that final scene.
2. Legacy
This film is part of the rare group of films where it exceeds as a stand-alone film and a great remake. Part of the rules for a great remake is expanding on the original source material and adding something new and refreshing to it. So much so that the film is referenced every now and then in pop culture. I’ve seen it happen when the alien’s point and scream was spoofed by Rick and Morty in one episode.
Also, this is one of those rare films where there was even more remakes. Albeit, not like A Star is Born, the different releases changed the setting from an Army base to an alien bacteria that is spotted on a Space Shuttle. The titles would break up the full name, which is where we got Body Snatchers from the 90s and The Invasion in the 2000s. I haven’t seen any of them, only that I was first exposed to the concept when watching the commercials for The Invasion.
3. Overall
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is up there in terms of 1970s horror and in sci-fi. A classic with its story that is very contemporary.
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