310. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Running Time: 80 minutes
Directed By: Don Siegel
Written By: Daniel Mainwaring, from the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
Main Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones
Click here to view the trailer

Note: A commenter, here on the blog, has asked me if I would be able to start including trailers for the films that I review. In an effort to try my best to meet reasonable requests, I will start including a link to the trailer underneath the cast list. Of course, if I'm unable to find a trailer, one won't be included. Now then.....

FRIGHTFEST 2011: 4 of 5

As we near the end of our "Frightfest 2011" festivities, I officially take a look at the oldest film I've watched since my return - "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". This was actually more of a sci-fi film than a horror film, but it fit right in with the theme of thrills and chills for Halloween.

Dr. Miles Bennell (McCarthy) has been called by his nurse to return home early from a medical convention, with the information that everyone in town is apparently in need of him. When Bennell gets back, he soon finds that everyone has miraculously recovered from their ailments. However, there are several people in town claiming that certain members of their family, aren't who they claim to be. For example, little Jimmy Grimaldi is certain that the woman who is claiming to be his mother (and has since his birth), isn't actually his mother. At first, the doctor brushes off these notions and recommends a psychiatrist, who chalks everything up to a "mass hysteria" of sorts. Then Bennell gets a call from a friend, Jack (Donovan), who has a seemingly dead body lying across his pool table and one that resembles Jack to a tee. When they take the corpse's fingerprints, they find he doesn't have any. Later, in the night the "corpse" awakens and proves that it wasn't really a corpse at all, but something else. As the film goes on, Bennell teams up with his old fling Becky Driscoll (Wynter), Jack and Teddy (Jones) and together the quartet start to piece the mystery together, tying everything to mysterious, pea pod looking plants that have "cropped up" all over town and are the obvious sources of the corpse-like bodies/replicas that are popping up.

SPOILER ALERT!

While I did enjoy "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" while it lasted, when it was over I couldn't help but shake the B-movie feeling and overall feeling that I had just taken in a very average picture. There were many aspects of the film that I did enjoy. I enjoyed the fact, that while the pea pod explanation was kind of a really stupid one, they played it off as a real threat and really made you feel that these characters were in danger and that they needed to survive these things at all costs. Some of the camera angles were really intense and frightening also - a specific shot of Dr. Bennell with his face right up in the camera, as he stood aghast at the horrors that befall the town. Another shot, a wide shot this time, of all the townspeople, now in a zombie-esque state, gathering (all at the same time) on the street and getting their directive. For a cheap, 1950s, sci-fi affair, at least the man behind the camera knew what he was doing. I also enjoyed the whole subplot of Dr. Bennell and Becky HAVING to stay awake. It actually made me wonder if there has ever been a movie where a group of characters, for one reason or another, HAD to stay awake. If not, I think if you could come up with a good reason as to why they couldn't sleep, that could be a hell of a movie.

On the other hand, there were also things that I really didn't care for about "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". For starters, the acting wasn't that great. Sure, Kevin McCarthy did a fine job as Dr. Bennell, but the rest of the cast was hit or miss, with most of them missing. As I mentioned above, while the threats did seem real, the whole pea pod thing was just so unbelievable, that it was really hard to get behind the idea of giant, evil vegetables being the cause of the havoc in this town. If they were simply staying true to the book, then it's hard to fault them for it, but it was just a goofy concept, if you ask me. Also, the other thing that I really HATED about this film and the thing that's really going to drag this one down, as far as ratings go, was the ending. What a terrible ending! I thought I had it pegged from the beginning. The entire film is told in flashback mode, as Dr. Bennell is being held in a psych ward because he's trying to get across the idea that everyone in town is brainwashed and not having much luck. I thought for sure, that when we snapped back to the present, at the end of the film, that Dr. Bennell would realize that his psych ward captors were also the victims of the body snatchers and realize that he was, indeed, caught. But, of course, we had to go for the happy ending, where the doctors realize that Dr. Bennell isn't crazy and that there are actually body snatchers on the loose. I hated it and it really drug the whole thing down. If they had gone with my ending or any un-happy ending, I could have easily ignored my other list of grievances, in regards to this movie, and given "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" a really good, high rating.

RATING: 6/10 As it stands, however, they went with the happy ending, so I went with the just above average rating of a '6'. I would, however, really like to take a look at Philip Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and see if it worked out any better. I'll be out at Wal-Mart most of my weekend, earning my income, so I'll probably see you all back here Sunday night for my review of the MOTHER OF ALL HORROR FILMS - "The Exorcist". Take care.

MOVIES WATCHED: 341
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 660

October 28, 2011 10:10pm