ALIEN HORROR SUMMER - NO. 5: INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) MOVIE REVIEW
This dread and paranoia filled classic from the 1970s is about a stealth invasion from alien spores but has much more on its mind than the average sci-fi fare.
by Nate Lemann
Phillip Kaufman’s updating of this classic alien invasion thriller is so of it’s time, yet contains themes of timeless importance. Kaufman also does an impressive job building a tone and atmosphere that feels suffocating and grounded in real world paranoia. It also helps he boasts a cast of actors who are ahead of their time in a naturalism that grounds your fears in character-driven drama.
We open with a very idiosyncratic form of alien invader: we observe spores floating over another world, one without its own atmosphere. We follow as these spores are carried on solar winds, traveling through the vastness of space. As the tiles display, we watch as they strange creatures land on earth and begin to sprout into plant-like pods, with a beautiful red flower at its center (there is an also unexplained cameo by Robert Duvall as a priest on a swing set that never gets addressed outside of one odd reaction shot from the great actor). Brooke Adams’ Elizabeth, a Department of Health tester, notices the odd plant and decides to take it home with her to study.
Meanwhile, across town her co-worker (and potential love interest) Matthew (the great Donald Sutherland in his career apex pocket) is giving shit (literally) to a French restaurant. The scene about the caper is an odd little pocket of humor in an otherwise very grim film. By setting these main characters at the Department of Health, it accomplishes multiple things at once: makes these people outsiders, the type of people who inspire a great deal of wrath against (as evidenced by Matthew’s front windshield). It puts them in a position to actually do something about a potential alien spore outbreak. It also makes them prone to have a high attention to the most minute of details. It is that attention to detail that Kaufman uses to great effect, playing up the ever so slightly uncanny actions of those who have succumbed to the spore infection.
As Elizabeth’s boyfriend and many other citizens of the San Francisco area begin to act in very detached manners, a growing suspicion and tension sets in. Kaufman builds a tone that is so expertly suffocating that once the team catches onto the growing conspiracy, it already feels too late. Matthew and Elizabeth are joined by Jack (a fresh-faced Jeff Goldblum) and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright, of “Alien”-fame), as well as morally dubious pop-psychologist Dr. David Kibner (a really devious turn from Leonard Nimoy). The question of who to trust and where can they run to mounts in terrifying fashion, along with some heavily disturbing special effects showing how these spores both kill and replace human counterparts.
In an age of deep mistrust and reckoning with authority, this film so masterfully taps into that conspiratorial paranoia, with people in positions of power looking to control the way we live our lives, from romantic relationships to societal conformity. The film plays with a feeling one gets that they are the only sane person in a world gone crazy.
Its an exceptional cast that is anchored by one of Sutherland’s best and iconic performances. He always had this wild charm and unpredictability but he is able to channel that into new and inventive ways to play a more stuck-up character who slowly watches his world fall apart. Adams is such a empathetic performer (thought she is sabotaged in a few scenes by some awful ADR work). Her chemistry with Sutherland is very palpable and their connection drives the film beyond a cheap paranoia thriller. There are very real emotional stakes beyond just losing one’s self to the spore replacement; these new version of "humans" have no emotions, especially not love. The death of love is what is at stake at the heart of this film.
Kaufman and team made some of the most iconic sci-fi set pieces ever. The no sleep rule is one of those horror rules that was so ubiquitous at the time. The eery pod people scenes are gruesome and macabre in a very cool way. The human faced dog is just so gross and a great piece of body horror. The garbage truck going around collecting the human ashes are also unnerving. The film can exhibit moments of great chaotic energy that the stars look to thrive off of. What is perhaps the lasting legacy is the scream these creatures pull out when they find one who hasn’t been turned yet. It is uncanny and disturbing, part of what is perhaps the greatest twist ending in the history of cinema.
While the film may seem to age poorly in places, it is a movie that was well ahead of its time but also spoke to real concerns that were taking place at that moment in American culture. Films rarely can do both, let alone as well as this film does.
FINAL RATING: 4.5/5 Stars (Timeless sci-fi classic with plenty of scares and social commentary in equal measure)
Comments