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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

7.6

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3 Related Movies

Remake:

The Invasion

Remake:

Body Snatchers

Original title

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Year

1956

Running time

80 min.

Country

United States

Director

Don Siegel

Screenwriter

Daniel Mainwaring. relatos: Jack Finney

Cast

Music

Carmen Dragon

Cinematography

Ellsworth Fredericks (B&W)

Producer

Allied Artists

Genre

Sci-Fi. Fantasy. Horror | Small Town Life (North-american). Aliens. B Movie. Cult Movie

Movie Groups

Jack Finney Adaptations

Synopsis

Miles Bennell, a GP in the small Californian town of Santa Mira, returns from an out-of-town meeting to find himself inundated with calls from locals insisting that members of their family are not the same people any more or have changed in some way. Believing this to be some type of mass hallucination, he refers them to a psychiatrist. He meets his old girlfriend Becky Driscoll and starts seeing her again. They are interrupted at dinner by mystery writer Jack Belicec who takes them to see a body found on his pool table, one mysteriously lacking any type of distinguishing marks, even fingerprints. As Jack sleeps, his wife sees the body form into a likeness of Jack, even down to a recent cut on its hand. Miles finds a similar body forming in Becky’s basement. But when they try to show the bodies to the police they have vanished and they think in the rationale of daylight that they have succumbed to the mass delusion too. But as night falls again they find pods in Miles’s glass house. When they try to run they find everywhere that the townspeople have turned into hostile, emotionless pod people trying to stop them.

Rankings Position

Critics' reviews

"This tense, offbeat piece of science-fiction is occasionally difficult to follow due to the strangeness of its scientific premise. Action nevertheless is increasingly exciting."

Variety Staff: Variety
"Easily the best of the '50s sci-fi thrillers, this one is subtle but still scary"

Los Angeles Times
"Incredibly chilling, this Don Siegel movie still delivers a powerful punch."

Chicago Tribune
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an excellent movie about paranoia, conformity, and the need to 'stay awake,' or else become jaded, emotionally dead."

IGN
"Don Siegel’s 1956 science-fiction chiller deserves its classic status (...) its enduring resonance lies in its fable-like simplicity (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"

Jonathan Romney: The Guardian
"The defining metaphorical work of the twentieth century. (...) Siegel and his writers are entirely aware of the allegorical depths inherent in their material.

Tom Huddleston: Time Out
"A 50s horror classic that remains a gem of allegorical paranoia."

Ian Nathan: Empire

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Ranking Lists Position

48 My Favorite Sci-Fi Films (293)

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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