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Summary: GREAT!!!!
Review: I had low expectations for this film. I now respect this film, for being the scariest movie from the 50s! The 1978 version is scarier, but this one would have been if they left it in it's original version. They need to have a "Directors Cut" of this film. No this isn't a splatter film, this is a scary movie that messes with your mind. Yeah anyone can watch it with the lights on and with friends, watch it buy yourself in the dark, you cowards!
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Summary: Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Scary Then Scary Now
Review: Whenever lovers of science fiction films meet and discuss their favorite choices, all of them list INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as somewhere in the top ten. IBS is as impressive as it is because it works on several levels at once, with director Don Siegel wisely not allowing the viewer to think that he has figured out what is going on. On the basic plot level, Siegel sets up a race between the protagonist Dr. Miles Bennell, played like a character in a Hitchcock film who only slowly realizes that truth hides behind a multi-level strand of surface falsehood, and the plant pod replicas who clearly plan to spread their invasion beyond the city limits of Santa Mira. On the allegorical level, many critics see IBS as an oblique warning of the dangers of communism, not the danger that results from the actual presence of card-carrying pinkos, but rather from the danger that accusing one of being a communist is sufficient to verify one of being a communist. And then there is the psychological level which forces the viewer to acknowledge that one of the most unsettling fears that anyone can have is to wake up one fine morning only to realize that the world has changed significantly in that the bedrock of all familial groupings--the family--has been swapped for a lookalike that only pretends to be the original but clearly someone else is hiding under the skin. Siegel uses this third level at the very start of the film when little Jimmy Grimaldi complains that his teacher is not who she says she is, and shortly later makes a similar claim about his mother. Dr. Bennell's romantic lead, Becky, tells him a similar wild claim about her friend Wilma, who insists that her Uncle Ira is a fake too. The point of these early claims of body snatching is to suggest the spread of the pod infection was slow and gradual. The fact that several people could fear that their friends and family were not whom they appear indicates that the infection was still new enough to cause the uninfected to notice. The true horror starts when claims of infection level off and then cease. By then, it is very nearly too late.
Kevin McCarthy does a credible job as Dr. Bennell. He is the perfect intellectual, who when faced with increasing evidence of the unimaginable, must be forced to see the evidence for what it is. And as he learns to understand, so does the viewer. Dana Wynter, who plays Becky, is terrific in a role that requires her to appear on screen first as little more than the stereotypical Girlfriend of the Hero, then later, she expands the richness of her role as she rides the rollercoaster emotions involved in first fighting the invasion, then joining it as fatigue breaks her down more surely than evidence of the pods does. IBS has several scenes of gut-twisting pain that linger in the mind even years after seeing the movie. Three come to mind: the discovery of the pods in the basement of a friend's house that look amazingly like him and Becky; the look on Becky's face as Dr.Bennell sees she has been 'snatched;' and the closing scene in which Bennell shouts out to a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS makes an eloquent call for humanity to hold onto its individuality at all costs. If human beings ever truly wind up as their pod counterparts, then those emotions that stamp people as people will be emptied out, and the pods, which carried the original source of the infection, will ultimately be seen as symbolic of man's new state of affairs: green and healthy on the outside, but dark and lifeless on the inside.
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Summary: Invasion of the creepy factor..........
Review: This always has been and always will be one of the best and creepiest sci-fi movies EVER!!! ahahah YEAH!!! I've seen this movie somewhere in the area of 20x's I think... Even nearly 50years later it still has the same effects I'm sure as it did back then. The new versions of "The Body Snatchers" just can't touch the original version!!! Though they still are *GOOD*!!! Anyways just check this out, I REALLY DON'T need to give you a synopsis, been done many times allready!!!So *enjoy*& God Bless&Good Day/Night ~Amy
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Summary: Pseudo-Pods Invade Southern California!
Review: The original is still a classic, and performs surprisingly well even with its few dated elements. Where the '78 remake succeeds through spectacular special effects and a heightened sense of nightmare reality, the original works by use of minimalist realism. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter are likeable and believable as the young lovers caught in something beyond their comprehension. The story is presented in crime melodrama format, with alternating moody washed-out grayish, and stark, shadowy black-and-white, photography. The only really dated element in it is the soundtrack, which spikes the drama with overly-dramatic stings that sometimes sound laughable by today's standards. The whole is so well done, however, that you're likely not to even notice. The scene in which McCarthy loses Wynter is still a chiller, precisely because of its simplicity. The wide-screen version of this film, if you can find it, is the best. It has a more panoramic cinematic style than most movies of its type, or even its time. But any version of it is worth a watch.
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Summary: invasion of the body snatchers
Review: A great science fiction classic, but the DVD transfer was too grainy. The VHS version has a cleaner picture. I believe a re-issue to DVD would make the movie more watchable.
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Summary: The First and Best Body Snatchers
Review: This 1956 version of Jack Finney's novel is by far the best. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter are sympathetic as humans fighting for their humanity in pod-infested Santa Mira, California. Only quibble is unnecessary prologue and epilogue which was mandated by the studio to suggest a "happy" ending.
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Summary: McCarthy-ism??
Review: Unlike many reviews of this (and other films of the 50's era)the only McCarthyism i see in this film, is the star Kevin McCarthy.I guess i didnt realize we were all so paranoid in the fab 50's. At any rate the DVD transfer of this great sci-fi picture was quite good. Well filtered and it plays quite cleanly. No need for me to go on about how well acted this film was or how the plot keeps moving at a good speed as im sure most folks have seen this picture. If not and your a fan of sci-fi you should give it a try,its a true classic.
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Summary: Dont sleep!!
Review: This movie scared me to death 35 yrs ago and is still one of my favorites. Chilling is a word thrown around a lot in descriptions of movies of this genre but in this case it fits. It doesnt get any better than this for sci-fi/horror of the 50's or any decade.
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Summary: Invasion of the Body Snatchers still spooky and fun
Review: "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" still has the ability to cause chills to run up and down my spine. It's a great classic of the 1950s that still ranks as a mind-thriller. Too bad the director was forced to add the naration and the beginning and closing sequences. The movie would REALLY be creepy if it had ended with Miles (Kevin McCarthy) standing on the highway screaming to passing motorists, "You're next". A perfect cold war inspired film. A nice change to be frightened by an intellectual drama instead of the current violence and gore seen in today's films.
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Summary: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers [1956]
Review: I have alot of favorite movies but,this is a Atomic Cult Classic!The book is excellent too!This film is great because it's mixed with cold war paronoia and a alien invasion.I'm probaly not the only one who thinks this film is a classic.The best part of the movie is when Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter are being chased by imposterd citizens. I'm surprised they didn't get a charliehorse.The funny part about this film is that back in 1956, people thought this could really happen. I recremend this film to people who understand about alien invasions. O yeah just remember "You're Next"!
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