Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an American science-fiction film first released in 1956, directed by Don Siegel.  The film is based on a novel by Jack Finney and stars Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan and Carolyn Jones.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Dr Miles Bennell is attending a conference when anxious calls from his patients compel him to return to his home town of Santa Mira in California.  Many of the town’s population have become convinced that close friends and relatives appear to have changed in a subtle and disturbing away – they look and behave as before, but they lack any emotions.  At first, Dr Bennell dismisses this as mere paranoia but then he is surprised when his initially disturbed patients suddenly become quiescent again.  His curiosity turns to alarm when a crudely formed human body is found lying on the pool table in a bar owned by a friend.  Its features are unfinished and it has no fingerprints.   Bennell then finds another body – one that resembles his girlfriend Becky Driscoll.  He realises the horrifying truth in an instant.  The town’s entire population is being replaced by alien beings...

Possibly the most famous, and certainly one of the best, of the 1950s American B-movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a science-fiction classic than no aficionado of the genre should miss.  Although a modest film, made on a very tight budget, it proved to be one of the most influential films of its kind, inspiring two direct re-makes (one quite good, the other less so) and helping to define sci-fi in the movies and on television for several decades.  Unlike many sci-fi/fantasy films of this era, this one holds up pretty well today, and manages to be chilling, thought-provoking and strangely amusing.     

More has been written about this film than perhaps any other sci-fi movie.  It has been described both as an allegory of the anti-Communist paranoia that swept America in the 1950s and a film that blatantly endorses the anti-immigration stance of the extreme right wing.  This is despite assertions from director Don Siegel and writer Jack Finney (on whose novel the film was based) that the story had no political subtext when they were working on it.  This is one of those films where you can read into it almost any messages you want...

Although it is masterfully shot and edited, Invasion of the Body Snatchers falls short of being a masterpiece.  The slightly embarrassing B-movie flaws are all too apparent in the overly melodramatic performances and stilted (and at times slightly bonkers) dialogue - dialogue of the kind that you only ever find in American B-movies of this era.   Indeed, the first half of the film seems almost to parody the B-movie, showing a quaint depiction of a small American town, with no inkling of the horror and darkness that would fill the screen and the mind of the spectator in the film’s last forty or so minutes.   One of the film’s most apparent flaws stems from the decision to change the aspect to Superscope in post-production - this was done for commercial, not artistic, reasons and slightly weakens the film’s visual impact.  

Perhaps the main reason why Invasion of the Body Snatchers works so well, and why it is still so frightening today, is that it never tries to be too clever with what was technologically possible at the time.  Special effects are few and far between here, and the ones it does have are remarkably effective, and will probably still look good in a hundred year’s time.  Rather than relying on effects, the film achieves its impact through ingenious lighting, photography and staging.  The overall result of this pared down approach is far more effective and memorable than what we find in today’s crop of special effects saturated films. 

Curiously, the recent worrying trend towards soulless effects-dominated cinema has a particular resonance with this film.  If Invasion of the Body Snatchers is anything it is a warning against the creeping dehumanisation of mankind - not through an alien invasion, but through technological and social developments.   Compare this film with its terminally bland 2007 remake and you can see what we are in danger of losing – or have perhaps already lost...

© James Travers 2008

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