frankwiener It's much more sinister than that. Dr. Miles Bennell is rushed back to his small, ordinarily blissful southern California town because something just isn't right. Some strange influence has gripped the town, and his patients are flooding his phone line before mysteriously cancelling their appointments. What is up with Santa Mira? What's even worse is that folks, both adults and children, are insisting that their family members just aren't the same people anymore, as if they have been possessed or corrupted by some very nefarious force.I love the best of 1950's science fiction, and this is surely among the best. During the very first viewing many years ago as a child, I was scared out of my wits, and after many, many subsequent viewings, I still share the horror that Miles feels when he realizes that his beloved Becky Driscoll just isn't the same person anymore. What's worse is that she will never, ever again wear that knockout, strapless dress in which she appears early in the film. Need I state in words that Dana Wynter was one beautiful woman?Aside from the uniqueness and intelligence of the original idea, the captivating cast, both leads and support, and the excellent script by Daniel Mainwaring ("The Hitch-Hiker", "Out of the Past", "Phenix City Story"), director Don Siegel very successfully establishes a perfectly paradoxical situation of a town, an area, and a way of life that appears to be serene and idyllic on the surface while a very powerful and extremely ominous force is quietly destroying it all from deep within, one house at a time.Of great interest to me is how some viewers interpreted the malevolent force as a symbol of mind-controlling Communism, or any form of totalitarianism, while others saw it as analogous to the McCarthy anti-Communism movement of the period. For me, the theme is so deep, significant, and universal that it can be perceived in many, different ways and on many, different levels. On a personal note, I lived in a small town for 28 years that gradually became "invaded" by a very specific political and social philosophy that seemed to program the minds of the inhabitants over a period of time until any member of the community who believed differently became ostracized, ridiculed, and widely condemned by an oppressive and very unhealthy "tyranny of the majority". To this day, I believe that the town's public education system was systematically programming the children in a specific way, and the children were then influencing their parents, who desperately wanted to be accepted by them as "hip" peers rather than as traditional parents who were supposed to guide their kids into adulthood, at least to some degree. It was a kind of role reversal in which the children of the town had taken control of the hearts and minds of the parents. This was not science fiction. This was actually happening in that very real town and continues to this day. As I endured the very disturbing transition of the town over time, I was constantly reminded of this brilliant and terrifying work of art, which so successfully depicts a very, very important message about our need to fight for our individual convictions and for our precious sense of humanity, regardless of the odds.

chimera3 My brother and I have seen many versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" over the years and had yet to come across the one that started it all. When he found it, he recorded it and we watched it almost right away. We love a good horror movie regardless of the decade, but this one was scary even to us. It takes a lot to scare people like me and my brother, but this one was right up there. As with so many movies that came out of the iconic era of the 1950's, it was built primarily on paranoia and psychological horror. Those are the ones that stick with you. If you really want to watch a good horror movie that will have you watching your back every time you walk down the street, this is the one for you. You will have to be very careful whom you drive by or walk past after this one. This is definitely one film that will take your breath away and one that you should definitely, under any circumstances, NOT watch by yourself. It is that good.

Woodyanders Dr. Miles Bennell (superbly played by Kevin McCarthy) suspects that something might be amiss in the sleepy small town of Santa Cruz after various people start behaving in an odd and detached manner.Director Don Siegel grounds the fascinating fantastic premise in a thoroughly believable workaday rural reality, adroitly crafts a supremely creepy and unsettling atmosphere, and likewise creates with equal expertise a quietly unnerving sense of mounting dread and paranoia that gradually builds to a shattering fever pitch in the harrowing last third. Daniel Mainwaring's ingenious script makes a profound and powerful statement on how our capacity to feel all kinds of emotions and desire for individual identity are two key important traits that make all of us special and human (if deprived of these two traits, we are reduced to the level of bland and emotionless automatons). McCarthy and Dana Wynter as the smitten Becky Driscoll make for personable leads; they receive excellent support from Larry Gates as the skeptical Dr. Dan Kauffman, King Donovan as the worried Jack Belicec, Carolyn Jones as the shaken Theodora, and Virginia Christine as the distraught Wilma Lentz. Both the crisp noir-like black and white cinematography by Ellsworth Fredericks and Carmen Dragon's spirited shivery score are up to par. Worthy of its classic status.

franklshannon This movie is one of the most ringing endorsements of the term "better dead than red" I've ever seen.The theme is that our uniqueness, including our flaws, is the most precious thing. We should fight absorption by any collective with last ounce of strength, regardless of how hopeless it may seem.A lot has been made of the studio forcing insertion of some softening effects. And I agree that this is problematic. But it doesn't ruin the movie, it's still a must see. The word paranoia is used a lot in describing Snatchers but from my perspective I saw no paranoia displayed or inferred. The movie almost screams that threat is REAL and that perhaps the greatest danger we face is our denial of the meaning of the evidence right in front of our eyes.