Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Maria Gagliano
Adam Weinstein
English 101
10 October 2007

In the past critics such as John Whitehead and Tim Dirks have interpreted and based the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers on either Communism or McCarthyism. Dirks article of the movie focuses on the subject of McCarthyism, the traits of being cold or “one of them” and unable to express emotion or closeness (Dirks). In Whitehead’s article, he states that the movie strongly represents Communism and that specific time in history. To Whitehead, the seed pod people represented the Communist who wanted to wipe out the American society in order to produce Communist clones. Pod people are those that have no passion or sense of feelings (Whitehead). Both Communism and McCarthyism are clearly depicted throughout the entire movie through the growing seed pods trying to take over an entire community by cloning or even taking the place of a human during their sleep. In the movie, there is only one man, McCarthy, who tries to stay a hero and not let the seed pods take over, but when he loses everyone he loves, he quickly realizes that ending this deadly time is going to be tough alone. Both Whitehead and Dirk’s articles express Invasion of the Body Snatchers to be a thrilling science fiction, horror film that models a time period in history when illness among society took over, but this movie does not compare to modern day science fiction, horror films.

After watching and evaluating the movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I began to strongly disagree with both Dirk’s and Whitehead’s reviews of the movie. They each stated in their articles that this movie was based on politics such as Communism and McCarthyism taking over a whole society, but, to me, this movie was clearly just a science fiction film demonstrating the fear of the unknown. In the beginning of the movie, the town’s people are confused as to why loved ones are acting differently. They try to tell people that their loved ones feelings just are not the same and that all of their emotions are gone; people are not acting the way they used to and nothing is what it seems. One elder lady, in the movie, is told to go see a psychiatrist for saying these things because to some it just seems like pure non sense. As the movie progresses, the doctor tries to figure out what is going wrong in the town, and he soon learns that that seeds come from out of the sky and root in a farmer’s field to grow and become pods. Fear of the unknown, in this movie, is represented through the fear of outer space, where the seeds originate from. Whitehead states, “During America’s early space exploration, many Americans feared space would invade the earth” which is clearly shown in this movie through the fear of the seed pods wiping out the whole town (Whitehead). Even in Dirks article, he refers to the pods as aliens trying to dehumanize an entire community. In the beginning, no one wants to be taken over by the pods and everyone tried to strongly resist it, but once their bodies are taken over in their sleep, they explain their world as perfect with no worries as they try to convince the ones who have not been taken over yet to just let it happen.

Another reason that I have grown to believe that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a science fiction film is because of the fear of new technology. “Many viewed the movie as a warning of the dangers of science and inventions,” because people began to realize that advancements in technology could ultimately harm the world (Whitehead). In the movie, Miles states, “So much has been discovered the past few years. They may be the result of atomic radiation or weird alien organisms” implying that the alien like pod creatures were only created due to new technology (Whitehead). People began to fear technology, and learned that it is not always good and helpful, or at least that is what they believed.

Although I do believe that the movie is a science fiction film, I do not agree that it is a horror film. A horror film is a film that is designed to create fear as well as scare and horrify viewers; this movie did not. Even Dirks characterized the movie as thrilling and disturbing, but I thought otherwise. I am a scary movie fanatic; therefore it takes a lot to impress me. When I read in the articles that this movie was going to be a horror film, I was ready and excited to watch it, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a total joke. I actually caught myself laughing in some parts. The acting was terrible, perhaps due to less experienced actors and actresses it because it was, after all, an old film. The frightened screams of those in distress in the movie were not even those screams that give me chills and goose bumps when I hear them like when I watch a modern day horror film.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers does not even come close in comparison to modern horror films today such as The Ring and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Modern day scary movies have the ability to cause the heart to race, make someone panic and yell at the screen as if the people in the movie can really hear what they have to say. These two modern movies send chills up and down my body as I watch them, and make me want so bad to turn the movie off but I just cannot because it is too entertaining and I have to see what happens. A great scary movie keeps one watching and wanting more, which is not what Invasion of the Body Snatchers did for me since the whole time I had to fight myself from falling asleep.

To all those horror film groupies like myself, I do not advise watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If you like a great horror movie to truly scare you out of your wits, this is not the movie to watch; it will actually be a complete waste of time. It does not at all compare to modern day movies and the high standard that they have set. This movie is not at all relevant to audiences today and their expectations of a good, horrifying movie. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is too corny and old; go spend your time watching something better.

Works Cited

Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956).” 1996. 26 September 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html.

Siegel, Don. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 1956.

Whitehead, John. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for our Times”. Gadfly Online. 1998. 26 September 2007. http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html.