Horrorfest 2011: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

I took a look at the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS from the 1950s for Horrorfest 2009, so now it's time for the 1978 version of the same name. This remake is well regarded as a good film in its own right, and from what I can tell some viewers believe it is superior to the original. I still prefer the original, but this one was definitely a good flick.

Donald Sutherland stars as a San Francisco health inspector whose co-worker (Brooke Adams) becomes convinced that her live-in boyfriend (Art Hindle) is some kind of impostor. At first Sutherland recommends Adams consult his psychologist friend (Leonard Nimoy!) who is also a best selling author. But soon, Sutherland's buddy (Jeff Goldblum) discovers a weird body that seems to be from another world, and things start to come together. As crazy as it seems, our heroes come to the conclusion that humans are being replaced with clones from outer space.

As more and more of the city becomes possessed, our group of heroes is forced to go on the run, only there isn't really anywhere to run that isn't already taken over by the bad guys.

Although both films are about paranoia and loss of identity, I think the original INVASION did a better job of setting an overall paranoid tone for the movie. The isolated small town atmosphere made a more frightening counter point to the horror than San Francisco does in this film. In the original, the characters seems insulated enough that it was additionally horrific to them that anything bad could be going on at all in their seemingly perfect world. In this one, the characters seem world weary enough that we lose a little bit of that innocence and the invasion becomes more of a confirmation as if to say, "See, the conspiracy kooks were right all along."

On the other hand, some of the updates are welcome. The movie goes into more detail showing where the pods came from, how the grow, and how they infect people. It makes use of more modern fads like self-help and health spas. It was a nice surprise to have Brooke Adams walking around naked in the finale. Sutherland, Adams and Goldblum all turn in good performances and Nimoy is particularly well cast as a character who starts off as an arrogant blowhard and ends as an outright villain. And, there's a great ending.

Anyway, next time someone starts bitching and moaning about how all remakes suck, point out INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was good. It doesn't matter if a movie is a remake, a sequel, or based on something that came before. If it's good, it's good, and if it sucks, it sucks. And this one's good.