The first two "Body Snatchers" are amongst the most terrifying films ever made. The philosophic concept of a loved one suddenly becoming a total stranger is scary and haunting, and both INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS easily induce nightmares. That said, what a let down BODY SNATCHERS is. The first key element that fails us is in the main characters. In the first two films, we embrace the main protagonists Miles/Becky or Matthew/Elizabeth...we care what happens to these people. We don't want them to succumb to the alien enemy. And when they do, we feel major loss and horror. In this update, there's NO ONE to really care about- our "heroine" is a sullen teenage girl(Gabrielle Anwar). Her Dad(Terry Kinney)is a self-involved and remote scientist, she's at odds with her stepmother(Meg Tilley), her little brother doesn't have much joy in his life...and this family is plopped down on a military base in the midst of being "taken over" by the pods. When you don't really have any in the film that you care about, seeing them "converted" doesn't really register(as it does in the first two films). Also, in the those films, we're dealing with a small town and a big city- there's LOTS of varieties of personality types to examine... but what can you expect on a military base, where the soldiers are all pretty zombified into conformity already? As agreed by most, probably the creepiest scene is delivered by Tilly, when her pod version whispers "Where ya gonna go? Where ya gonna run? Where ya gonna hide? Nowhere. Cuz...there's...no one...like you...left." Simply bone-chilling. Unfortunately, that's about it. Yeah, the "transformation" scenes are a lot more evolved than the '78 SNATCHERS, but there's simply too little emotional involvement to what's going on, let alone any suspense. And the ending is simply a sloppy mess- like the previous versions, there's no real resolution to the invasion, but in this case, it's simply NOT satisfying. In conclusion, the two "INVASION" films remain classics, because their incredible mix of sci-fi horror and the dramatic depths they draw their audiences into. BODY SNATCHERS, for the most part, is an uninvolving bore.
Review of Body Snatchers
