Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

A new dimension in "scarriness"

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 14, 2006

Pros: It grabs your attention from the very beginning. Never a dull moment. Keeps you on edge throughout.

Cons: A contradiction in the plot develops toward the end.

Even though we aren't told at first the nature of the unfolding evil, still from the very beginning you get a sense that something insidious and awful is happening in this small town (Santa Mira). I had seen several horror movies before, but whe...n I saw this one I experienced a new sense of fright beyond the earlier ones where people were attacked by monsters or by Dracula or zombies or mummies that came back to life. Or Martians. This one scared me in a new way. Since then, other sci-fi movies have picked up on the idea in one form or another so that today it's not so novel. Part of the scarriness is that the conspiracy going on is not fully explained at first, but is disclosed to the viewer gradually, so you get a hint of it but don't see the whole picture of what's happening until about half way into the movie. Yet from the beginning there is a real tension and edginess as you get clues of something evil happening to the poor townspeople who unknowingly fall victim to an increasing attack on them which seems unstoppable. It's similar to many other horror and conspiracy stories in that the few who discover what's happening have an impossible task trying to convince others and gaining help in stopping the evil from spreading further. It ends ambiguously, without clearly saying if the evil will ever be stopped. The story is compromised toward the end, as the nature of how the victims are conquered gets changed, perhaps in order to provide a sensationalist scene in which the hero (Kevin McCarthy) kisses his girl companion but during it she suddenly transforms into an alien being and he goes into shock. In the 1976 sequel movie this problem is corrected so that the story plot is made consistent. Although the '76 version is equally good in most respects, it does not communicate the same degree of tension - suspense - anxiety as the original. This movie raises some philosophical questions about personal identity and consciousness. Also about "other minds" and life after death. Read more Less