Body Snatchers (1993) - Well, THIS Got Scarier With Time

Welcome back. You're just in time for a fresh round of pods.

Now, you WILL remember to keep these properly watered in your rooms, right?

Look, I'm just concerned is all. I'm still seeing some emotions and I think these plants could help.

...wait. Let me try that again.

ANYWAY, we're jumping ahead in time, this time by fifteen years. It's a new generation and a new kind of Body Snatcher, this time with a new title, and a new director in the form of Abel Ferrara (which was weird for me to remember coming in this time with memories of Bad Lieutenant and Ms. 45.)

There IS still a fair amount of unsettling nonsexual nudity
but nothing quite on the level of Harvey Keitel's breakdown scene.

As an evolution of story, Body Snatchers differs considerably from either of the two prior movies. The pod people are still there, and function in much the same way as in the previous versions, but that is about it. In this case, the medical examiner hero of the past two movies is now a secondary, with the movie instead focusing on his daughter (played by a young Gabrielle Anwar) as the family is moved out to investigate strange goings-on an army base.

If you haven't figured out where it goes from there, well...I don't know what to tell you except keep taking care of those plants. It'll be over soon.

As I've said a few times now, one of the things that's fascinating about this series is how its core idea is adaptable, able to change itself to fit the themes and fears of whenever it is made, whether by design or simple happenstance.

In this case - well, welcome to a post Gulf War brand of pod people.

With that in mind, as some of you have already likely picked up on – Ferrara's decision to set the movie on an army base is a major part of where this movie is going thematically. This is probably the most thematically pointed of the four takes on the story produced to date – by the time Marti (Anwar) and her family arrive at the base, the pods have already taken over much of the populace. Thanks to the tendency of military culture to lean heavily on conformity, this change in the social structure isn't registered right away. Much of it is simply treated as standard army culture rather than an indication of shed humanity.

Okay, so it's not particularly subtle, but then no rule stated it had to be. For what it's worth though, Ferrara mostly conveys it well. At times it can be a little too on the nose (such as a sequence involving Marti's little brother in school where the students' art projects are all the exact same drawing) but even then, it doesn't feel like the movie slows to beat you over the head with it.

One other area where this particular version stands out – while not as uniquely grim as its 78 predecessor, Body Snatchers is arguably the entry in the series that could be described as the most overtly horror-based. Much more time is spent on sequences of people being taken over by pods – up to and including seeing the fate of a human fully taken over within the first act, a reveal previously kept till near the ending. It's understandable in some ways – by this point, the concept of the pod person was already a part of our cultural lexicon, so Ferrara didn't have to play it as coy, the audience already knew what it was getting into.

To its credit, the quick cut presentation of the scene still
makes for a pretty unsettling first reveal, even if you
know what's coming.

This more open approach to the creature and body horror leads to arguably the movie's strongest sequence – an extended scene in which soldier Tim (Billy Wirth), feigning being a pod, has to work his way through an army hospital that has been turned into a conversion center. Ferrara keeps the focus predominantly on Tim and the occasional looks at what he sees, and all the while we hear sounds of soldiers screaming as they're restrained and sedated or the sick, wet sounds of bodies collapsing as they're fully taken over. It manages to be both blatant but also careful enough to make sure it doesn't over play any one visual, creating an altogether disturbing tableau, made all the more effective by the extra challenge that Tim is required to keep a straight face through all of it.

Following this fairly nightmarish scene, we get an ending that is, to this point, probably the closest thing to an upbeat end (give or take for the studio mandated ending to 56, that is.) Of course, even that ending is laced with heavy ambiguity that the pods have already outpaced the survivors, and it's only a matter of time before they escape from one threat into another.

A threat that, in this version, makes the idea of sleeping
even MORE unsettling.

Overall, Ferrara's take remains an interesting one. There's no denying it's a movie with something to say, even if it's at times a bit too blunt about what it's saying, but it also still keeps its story moving, even while it's making sure you don't miss the point. The end result isn't quite as to-the-bone unsettling as its predecessor, but it still manages a fair number of unsettling jolts all on its own.

I still don't know if I can agree with Roger Ebert's assessment that this was the best of the three. In fact, as it is now, I think I'd put it third in line – though less from any fault of its own and more just preference for the first two in their approach. Even with that placing, this still works well as a fresh take.

Also, given what followed the 90s, a dark commentary on the enforced conformity of military culture, particularly with an emphasis on the threat of it eventually working its way off base and weaving its way among civilians as well that feels uncomfortably prescient, so it's got that going for it.

Three for three so far and each has been enjoyable experiences, with something unique to say for them.

Now comes...well...we'll get to The Invasion next time.

With a comment like that, I suppose I've already tipped my hand about what I thought about it, huh?

Well, you'll get to hear me explain that more next time.

ARE YOU ASLEEP YET?
JUST CHECKING

Till then.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

 It begins!

Welcome back to another October run at the Third Row. As discussed last time, this year the series of choice is that evergreen (no pun intended) sci-fi thriller staple, the Body Snatchers series. Further, as the title suggests, we're kicking things off today with the one that started it all (cinematically, anyway. Regrettably I hadn't gotten around to tracking down the original novel in a timely fashion for this one.)

It had been years since I really sat down and gave this a proper watch. In fact, I think the last time I saw it in its entirety before this was back when I wrote about it for the '31 days, 31 horror movies' formula. I haven't actually looked back at that entry because I wanted to go into this just off of the current impressions.

There's a particular aspect of this movie I want to get into, as it was one thing that struck me more on this viewing than it has in the past. But before I really dig into that, I just want to sound off on the movie on its own merits first.

So, I'll admit it as I'm writing this - I've looked at this poster many
times over the years. And this is the first time in all
of that I've really actually thought about, and got,
the significance of that handprint on it.

Having said that, this is still a very strong movie in its own right. It's one that sometimes tends to get overlooked given how large a shadow is (deservedly) cast by its successor, but it is still a movie well worth seeing in its own right. Siegel's version plays itself as a bit more low-key compared to what comes later, partly the benefit that comes from being the first in line and not having an audience that has a sense of what to expect (and whether you've seen the movies or not, the idea of a pod person is now pretty common knowledge thanks to pop cultural osmosis.)

The one area where the version can be said to stumble on its own merits is with regards to the movie's book-ending – a decision mandated by the studios to give the movie a more definitive ending.  
The first part isn't particularly troubling, for the larger movie – though, again, the knowledge it imbues the movie with does undercut the movie's slow reveal by giving you something to expect.

"Come on, guys! I'm not saying we have to spoil the entire movie!
How about just a little tease of what's coming, huh?
Just a little to let the audience get interested?"

The bigger problem comes with the movie's epilogue, an ending that feels very tacked on to give the movie a happier conclusion. In adding this in, the studio's undercut the original ending scene, where an utterly terrified Kevin McCarthy (who has already given a good performance prior to this scene, but knocks it out of the park here) frantically tries to warn others of the invasion he knows is coming, ending on his haunted expression as he shouts, both to the drivers and the audience, “YOU'RE NEXT!"  It's a genuinely great scene – and a good cap on McCarthy's performance – that loses a lot of its bite with the studio-mandated finale appending it.

If you only get to watching just one movie from this run, 78 is probably the best bet, but I'd be lying if I said 56 wasn't well worth your time just as a general watch (though again, feel free to consider skipping past the opening and ending – it won't be perfect as there is still narration, but you'll at least get the genuinely effective final scene as Siegel intended it.)

One of the more curious side effects I've accepted from living in 2020:
The realization that if I somehow travel backwards in time, this is
how I will probably come across to anyone I meet.

Before I conclude, there is one other thing I do want to go into – it's something that will be touched on with the other movies as well, but is of particular interest for me in the context of this first movie.

As I said last time, and alluded to above, Body Snatchers is a fascinating property because it's one that consistently speaks to the times it's made in. Even when all the versions have the same core concept, the differences in culture at the times of each new version give them an incredibly different feel.

This stands out even more given that this first attempt was a movie that was, as far as most of the people involved were concerned, apolitical. Per interviews with many of the people involved (among them  McCarthy, movie's scriptwriter and the author of the original novel the movie was based on) they all simply saw this movie as being a straightforward sci-fi thriller with no real undertone to it.

Despite that intention, the movie was soon made into a rallying point by people on both sides of the political spectrum – with reads of the movie being both anti-Communist and anti-McCarthy in its presentation. Of the people involved in the making of the movie, director Don Siegel was the only person who really acknowledged a political factor going in – and even to hear him tell it, it was less a conscious effort, and more an acknowledgment that the paranoia sparked by Joe McCarthy's anti-Communist witch hunts was going to make its way into the film whether they wanted it to or not.

"It's...it's either reading Karl Marx or naming names to the HUAC.
Depends which the audience finds scarier, but it's one of the two!"

In an age where people have debated the idea of politics in pop culture and horror specifically (an oftentimes disingenuous argument that ignores the subtext of many earlier classics of the genre), the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers remains one of the more interesting examples to bring up – it wasn't designed to be political, but it became that way just by sparking the right ideas at the right time.

Ideas that, to the movie's credit, still resonate now (watching the scenes of Santa Mira's children talking about how their older relatives have changed but never quite being able to explain it has a certain extra degree of haunting familiarity after you hear enough stories of people who've become estranged from loved ones that went down the rabbit holes of pundits, conspiracy theories, or oftentimes both.)

Again, I will be the first to admit, the 1978 Body Snatchers will likely always remain the gold standard of this property. Having said that, I'm pleased to see that the 56 still carries itself well now and still manages to feel like it has something to say for itself even now.

Pretty impressive for a movie that didn't feel like it was trying to make a statement at the time.

So far, so good. And if you're not sick of me singing the praises of the remake, check back here soon when we jumped ahead to the Philip Kaufman movie that solidified this series as pop culture shorthand.

Till then, this is your resident huma—Guy in the Third Row reminding you to take care of your plants and get lots and lots of sleep.

In closing, I would like to thank the Santa Mira Farmer's Market
for sponsoring this series - bring some pods home for the whole family.
No reason. They just might like them.