INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)

Most film buffs will have seen at least one version of the Jack Finney sci-fi classic (with one more film version on the way, apparently), with Don Siegel’s 1956 version seen as the definitive one for many people, and Abel Ferrara’s 1994 version being championed by Roger Ebert. For me, though, it is this 1978 version that holds up best, a weird (and weirdly cast), incredibly terrifying film that is perhaps more horror than science-fiction.

Whereas Siegel’s film was a damning of the McCarthy era in the United States, Kaufman has changed things so that the subtext this time is the end of the hippie era and the beginnings of the ‘Me’ generation, as people began trying to ‘find themselves’, pop psychology and the like. The story has also been moved from a small town to the much larger San Francisco area. But unlike Siegel’s decidedly left-leaning political stance, one could possibly make a case for either political point of view in the Kaufman version, though it’s my belief that it is indeed leftist.
In one of the strangest assemblages of casts ever, Donald Sutherland (never the warmest of actors, but a terrifically underappreciated one) stars as a health inspector whose fellow inspector (the lovely and rarely seen Brooke Adams, whose partner is that Monk guy, so you know she’s just gotta be a little nuts) starts to suspect that her lover Jeffrey is not quite right. Sutherland and especially his pop psychologist friend played by Leonard ‘I Am Not Spock…really, I’m not!’ Nimoy, dismiss this as typical of modern relationships, stressing the need to work at it (One of the major themes this time around concerns the hysteria, not around a fear of communism but a fear of the downfall of the ‘normal’ relationship between a man and a woman). But before long, people all over the city are complaining that their loved ones have somehow ‘changed’. I’m not one for ruining plots of movies, but these films have been talked about and spoofed so much that it wouldn’t hurt if I mentioned that aliens come to earth via spores which start creating ‘pod people’, emotionless duplicates of human beings.

Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright (can you imagine what their babies would be like if these two actors mated? I have a feeling David Lynch made a film about their offspring, the same year as this film in fact) are absolutely hilarious as Sutherland’s pals, who run a mud bath centre. Goldblum in particular shows early signs of his soon to be typical persona, so much so that it’s amazing to see him so good so early in his career. His frustrated writer character has some particularly funny moments of outright paranoia as he argues with the increasingly frustrated Nimoy. Meanwhile, Cartwright is exactly the actress you want when you need a character to start ranting and raving about alien monkeys and such. This is one eclectic and eccentric cast that help create a certain unease and quirkiness throughout, essential in a conspiratorial film such as this.
What makes this one of the most unsettling films I’ve ever seen is that, like M. Night Shyamalan in the underrated Signs, Kaufman continually gives us the impression that something scary is going to happen, even in scenes where nothing particularly frightening eventuates. For instance, scenes of Sutherland at work as he passes by various doors and we see some guy staring out the window, just off-kilter enough to be terribly unnerving. There’s even an inexplicable, but memorable cameo by Robert Duvall as a creepy priest on a children’s swing. Why? Hell if I know, but I sure didn’t like the look of him. And speaking of cameos, Don Siegel himself turns up as a cab driver and the star of the 50s version, Kevin McCarthy (who has seemingly been in every movie I love) reprises his role here running and shouting frantically ‘They’re Coming!’, as a momentarily startled but doubting Sutherland looks on from inside his car. Also look for the moment where Goldblum is ranting and raving at a party/gathering, like a paranoid loon, where his face is distorted by one of those weird mirrors. Like Rosemary’s Baby you’ll be reading into everything, trusting no one, and perhaps this will even transfer off screen into your own lives after watching the film. I can’t say the Siegel version affected me in the same way.

The special FX are also mightily impressive for the time, with one bravura scene where Sutherland’s character takes a nap outside, being a potential movie hall-of-famer in my book. Then there’s the brief moment involving a mutated creature towards the end of the film, that I won’t entirely spoil, suffice to say that despite the dated technology, it ranks alongside the revelation of the red-hooded figure in Don’t Look Now as a movie moment that disturbs me like no other. So much so that I squirm in my seat in anticipation every time (And that freaky wobbling eye trick Brooke Adams demonstrates at one point is also rather unsettling, furthering the feeling that you can’t quite trust anyone in the film, a change in lead roles about the midway point also helps, ala Psycho. Oh, and for perverts like me, you’ll not want to miss Adams’ brief nude scene towards the end, too). And then there’s the ending. I wouldn’t dare spoil it, but it’s yet another moment I uneasily anticipate, surely one of the most chilling final moments and most depressing endings you’re likely to encounter.