Movie Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

What if things weren’t as they seemed? What if people weren’t who they seemed? What if… aliens?

Ladies, gents, and non-binaries… “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.

After mysterious plants start emerging in San Francisco, health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) and his colleague Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) soon start suspecting that people are being replaced by strange clones. And thus begins a journey of figuring out what’s going on, and who can still be trusted as the invasion grows. Take the bug-eyed tension of paranoia thrillers, mix in some body horror, and you get the narrative of this movie. And I found it to be some of the most suspenseful and eerie storytelling that I’ve experienced in a film. Right from the word go, there’s this unease, a lingering dread that made me suspicious of pretty much anyone stepping in front of the camera. It’s a slowly creeping tension that kept me on my toes, making me never feel truly safe, and yet it also somehow always managed to catch me off guard every time it decided to go a bit bigger with its thrills and turns. Adding to it is also this sense of hopelessness, even as characters keep telling themselves “We’re gonna solve this”, there is this overwhelming dread that makes the proceedings way more intense and scary. It’s such a clever and tense story that I loved.

I really liked the characters in this, they’re flawed and believable, and it makes it easy to really feel for them as they have that grounding. What also helps is the absolutely fantastic cast. Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, and many more appear in this movie, and there’s not a weak link amongst them. It’s such a strong cast, all giving nuanced performances that really bring these interesting characters to life.

The score for the movie was composed by Denny Zeitlin and I think he did such a great job. He manages to really bring forth the different kinds of anxiety that happen throughout the movie. Early on it’s slower, more droning and eerie, as the invasion starts creeping in. But as things ramp up, he starts bringing in more dissonant notes and brash instrumentation that frequently leans on an affrettando to create this overwhelming “Oh shit” sensation. It’s the type of score I wouldn’t necessarily find myself listening to in my spare time, but it’s perfect for this movie in building suspense, intensity, and at times even a little sadness. It’s good stuff.

Based on a novel by Jack Finney, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was directed by Philip Kaufman, and he knocked it out of the damn park here. Inventive camera movements, frenetic editing, creeping zooms, the man pulls out so many interesting tricks to build as much tension as possible and he nailed it every time. He also knows what to reveal and when, knowing when less is more and when it’s time to give us the goods. Not always seeing the threat does often help make things scary, but he also shows the frankly disgusting effects and makeup work just often enough to keep it creepy and a bit gag-worthy. The man brings such a good balance between the paranoia and the body horror that just blew me away. Speaking of good shit, Ben Burtt’s sound design is horrifying, from the smaller creeping sounds to the louder noises that fans of the movie know very well, it’s all so well designed in its horribleness.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 93% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 75/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7.4/10.

So as you may have understood from the constant praise above, I absolutely adored “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. It has a great story, really good characters, fantastic performances, great music, and fantastic directing/effects/sound design. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is a 9.91/10. Which means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is now completed.

Me? Alien? What makes you think that? *subtly shoves pod under rug*

Great Music #39

Heya. Been a while since we did one of these posts. But if you’re newer, welcome to Great Music, the series I come back to every few millennia on this blog where I just ramble on about songs I like. So I guess without further delay, let’s see what we have in store.

So today we’re talking about a little song I only discovered earlier this year. A pop track that has captured my heart in a way I didn’t think entirely possible. The song in question is “River” by Japanese pop artist Anonymouz. Little is known about Anonymou- ooooooooh, I get it. Anyhow, while I can’t find much about this individual, I can chat about the song.
“River” is this sweeping pop track, a passionate cry to the skies and to nature itself, a want of redemption… a cry to move forward, to find peace within oneself, to have the pain of the past washed away by a mighty river. I first found this song through season two of anime series “Vinland Saga“, where it was used as the opening theme for the first half of the season. And it’s a very apt tune to use as its themes line up with that of the show’s, as it’s about a young viking seeking personal redemption after leading a violent, hate-filled life. But what also adds to the song is that it blends elements of modern pop writing with those sweeping ballads you’d find in big, epic Oscar movies, making for a song that is both modern and timeless, sweeping and bopping, powerful and just easy to listen to. It has that kind of nice dichotomy and I’m glad to have in my life.

As always, I will be sharing the song below, but I will also be putting in the shortened version they use in “Vinland Saga”, just for a bit of fun comparison. Anyhow, have a good one and enjoy.