Macabre...ish Horror Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978/ 1 hr 55 min. An alien species abandons their dying planet and escapes to Earth, San Francisco specifically. Their gelatinous spores landing on plants and assimilating them, producing beautiful flowering pods that blanket the city. Soon they will copy and replace the inhabitants.
One of the first people to take the flowers home is a lab assistant with the San Francisco Health Department, Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams). The next morning her boyfriend, Geoffrey, is cold and distant, very unlike himself. And it doesn’t get better, he’s a stranger. She approached her friend Matthew (Donald Sutherland) with her concerns, how Geoffrey seems wrong, emotionless and empty.
He sends her to another friend, a therapist, Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy) to get perspective. Matthew keeps running into people who insist that spouses and close relatives are not themselves. He begins to worry. People are acting strange. Not only are they strange and emotionless but almost conspiratorial. While driving, a man hits their car, hysterically warning everyone, ‘They’re coming!’ and when he runs off, he’s struck by a vehicle, and a police officer drives right by.
Later, in a spa owned by Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), they walk in on a person being copied and call Matthew for help. In his examination of the body, he notices that it has no finger prints and it has no details, no character. Suddenly Matthew realizes its a copy of Jack in the making. He quickly contacts Elizabeth who he’s just dropped off at home to her boyfriend who’s not acting like himself. Then he goes to check on her, breaking into her house, he finds her in bed and a copy of her growing in the garden.
He rescues her and takes her to safety, calling police and other government agencies. There’s no help anywhere. Later that night, they are narrowly copied in their sleep. They realize it’s the flowers, they send out tendrils, copy the original and as the copy wakes up, the original dies and disintegrates. And now pod people outnumber humans and when they see humans they emit a loud shriek.
They learn to behave without emotion to get around. They see children being led into a theatre to be copied. A mutant alien dog with a human face. And it all ends with an unexpected twist.
This is a good movie and a remake of the 1956 original. Lots of recognizable faces! This movie is another hopeless one and a little long winded if you’re not used to 70s movies.
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