Few remakes are as clever or scary as 1978’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.
We celebrate its 40th anniversary… An edge has been knocked off somewhere.
It all sounds a little bit too sanitized.
Predictably, this brings us to the headline topic: the movie remake.
That spark of absurdist Verhoeven anarchy.
That sly humor lurking beneath the surface.
In remakingInvasion Of The Body Snatchers,Kaufman also had the opportunity to fix the originals studio-enforced happy ending.
Yet the 1978 film escalates the sense of creeping horror in clever ways.
The growth of replacement people from gooey pods is brought to life with superb practical effects.
There are flashes of quite shocking gore.
Donald Sutherland is Matthew, a somewhat pompous health inspector, and Brooke Adams is Elizabeth, his colleague.
Whats more, the pod people themselves are truly menacing.
Its in scenes like this that KaufmansBody Snatchersreveals its lasting relevance.
Meanwhile, characters talk darkly about not trusting cops.
Conversations repeatedly contain the word conspiracy.
This, then, is why 1978sInvasion Of The Body Snatchersis the prime example of a perfect remake.
If only all remakes could be as intelligent as this one.
