- One of the great sci-fi films of the 1950's, Invasion of the Body Snatchers influenced works as diverse as Alien and Gremlins, not to mention seemingly every episode of The Twilight Zone. In fact, the film is so much a part of the cultural lexicon that I was surprised I hadn't seen it earlier. The bigger surprise, however, is that is both better and more absurdly exaggerated than I ever would have guessed.
- The story is familiar to everyone: pod people replace the humans in a small California town. Why? We don't know. Where do they come from? We don't know. All Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) knows is that he has patients lining up to see him one day and then mysteriously canceling their appointments the next. One of the patients, a young boy (Bobby Clark), thinks his parents aren't really his parents. Miles' old flame Becky (Dana Wynter) has a cousin (Virginia Christine) who experiences a similar sensation. Mass hysteria? Hardly.
- One of the film's more interesting conceits is that it shows the audience precisely what's going on and then makes us question what we've seen. When Miles' friends (King Donovan and Carolyn Jones) find a formless body on their pool table, it must be aliens, right? After that body and another both disappear, you'll start second-guessing yourself. The film's impressively grotesque revelation in a greenhouse later clears up any lingering doubts, but the film never plays things as straight as the average sci-fi/horror flick.
- Like probably everyone else, I knew in advance that Invasion of the Body Snatchers was partly an anti-communist allegory, but that hardly spoiled the fun. When Dr. Bennell starts yelling directly at the camera about how they're taking over, how they don't have any emotions, and how they're all the same, you'll enjoy getting the message. Fortunately, the film is also plenty interesting without any of the paranoid subtext. Director Don Siegel never has trouble holding any audience's attention and is especially good at providing casual glimpses, usually through windows or from the upper floors of buildings, of the daily lives of pod people. Sensational, yes, but enjoyable, too.
- The real horror: Sam Peckinpah as a meter reader.
