Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Directed by Philip Kaufman
Written by W.D. Richter from a novel by Jack Finney
1978/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
One of 1,000 Greatest Horror Films on They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?

Jack Bellicec: It’s a big conspiracy.
Matthew Bennell: What’s a conspiracy?
Jack Bellicec: Everything.

Comparisons are odious.  But they can’t be avoided.  This movie, however, stands up on its own two, unique feet.

Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is a food safety inspector for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  He seems to be sweet on his pretty lab technician Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams).  But she is living with sloppy self-absorbed dentist Geoffrey Howell.  She is a plant lover and picks an unusual flower and takes it home to study it. Before she knows it, Geoffrey seems to be an entirely new person.  For one thing, he takes out the garbage.  He also starts attending mysterious meetings non-stop.  She is convinced something very strange must be going on.

Elizabeth has a hard time convincing anybody, including Matthew, that she is not delusional.  He wants her to talk to his friend, famed psychiatrist and author Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy).  She does so at a book signing where he reassures her this is just a sign that she is unhappy with Geoffrey.  Funnily enough, there is another woman at the party with the same problem.  We are introduced to poet Jack Bellecec (Jeff Goldman) at the same party.  He hates Kibner and is mad at the world.

Jack and his wife Nancy make their living running a spa, specializing in mud treatments etc.  Jeff takes a nap and soon Nancy sees a horrible thing taking shape that is looking more and more like Jeff.  The Bellecec’s dodge that bullet but soon Elizabeth is under grave threat.  Things get worse and worse and more and more terrifying as the quartet try to escape possession by the unknown force.  With director Don Siegel as a cab driver and Kevin McCarthy, who starred in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), as a man with a message.

I found this far more downright terrifying than the original, largely due to the revealing nature of color and the advancements in special effects.  The acting here is superior.  I particularly enjoyed the performances of Sutherland and Goldman.  There is more of Big Brother vibe to this, as befits a late 70’s movie.  Recommended but folks really should see the original, which is iconic, as well.