A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Storyline

Dr. Miles Bennell returns to his small town practice to find several of his patients suffering the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are impostors. He is initially skeptical, especially when the alleged doppelgangers are able to answer detailed questions about their victim’s lives, but he is eventually persuaded that something odd has happened and determines to find out what is causing this phenomenon

Our Thoughts on Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is 60 years old. And a b-movie no less. And it still holds up pretty damn well. The scares still work, the score is all manner of creepy and its paranoia is credible. The themes of robbed identity and dehumanization help it maintain resonance; it’s a universal fear. I always liked Siegel’s look for this movie, the noir visuals, askew angles, and I get plenty of mileage out of the phrase “pod people” in everyday life. This movie’s place in sci-fi and pop culture is assured. But at the end of the day, it’s just good entertainment, and hauntingly pessimistic.

7 out of 10 Stars

Trivia

During its original release, papier-mâché pods were on display in theater lobbies, as well as black-and-white cutouts of Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter running frantically away from a crowd of pod people.

In 1994 this film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by The Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

During test screenings, much of the film’s original humor and humanity was cut when the audience found it difficult to follow and laughed at all the wrong moments. The studio insisted on edits because it wasn’t policy to mix humor with horror.

The pace of the shooting meant there was little time for the actors to rest between takes of the exhausting chase sequences. And there was no time to discuss scenes. Dana Wynter said the actors were always responsible for mentally rehearsing their characters and actions before jumping in front of the cameras.

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