Invasion of the Body Snatchers

source: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Trailer—Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Based on Jack Finney's novel, this classic film stars Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles Bennell, who returns to his small-town practice only to discover a number of his patients who claim that their loved ones are now impostors, since they no longer act like their normal selves. At first Miles thinks this delusion, but he comes to discover, with the help of his old flame Becky Driscoll(Dana Wynter), that alien seed pods have landed, and are systematically replacing people with pod lookalikes, who only appear human. They must defeat this plan, though it will come at a high cost... Extremely well acted and directed film has a smart and intriguing script that is not only suspenseful, but thought-provoking, and has been interpreted equally by both political sides as favoring their agenda! Ambiguity at its finest, though some don't like the tacked on happy ending...Still, the climatic quote "You're Next!" is quite chilling.

Dr Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) insists he's not insane as he recounts his story. He returned to his small town Santa Mira after many people started suffering similar symptoms. His former love Becky Driscoll has a cousin who thinks her uncle is an impostor. He is skeptical and assumes the many cases to be mass hysteria. Then his friend Jack Belicec shows him a body that looks like him. Later he finds a body that looks like Becky in her basement. He reports it to the police but the bodies are gone. As far as classic 50s sci-fi, it doesn't get much better than this. It is still watchable in the modern sense. It has the paranoia and Kevin McCarthy is brilliant. It is no wonder why it has been remade multiple times. The concept is simple but effective. And the scene where he warns the audience directly through the screen is a movie icon.