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Released by: MGM
Released on: September 14, 2010.
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy
Year: 1978
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The Movie:
When film buffs the world over butt heads over horror movie remakes (a far more common occurrence than you'd probably imagine!), the two that are always mentioned as examples of 'good remakes' are Carpenter's The Thing and Cronenberg's The Fly (time may place the Dawn Of The Dead remake and Jackson's King Kong in the upper echelon but it's too soon for that yet...). Why so little love for Philip Kaufman's take on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers? Good question, as it really holds up well even now, almost three decades since it was made and in some ways it's considerably more successful than Don Siegel's 1956 take on Jack Finney's original story.
When the movie begins, bizarre spores leave their home planet and float through the outer reaches of space until they land in California. Once they've touched down on Earth, they begin to grow, fairly quickly, into strange plants. While all of this is going on, a health board field investigator named Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) receives multiple reports where people are acting rather bizarre. The more attention he pays to these reports, the move he notices that they're not made up - people are definitely starting to act differently, even possibly including a doctor named David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy).
Matthew and his assistant, Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) team up with some friends of their, a married couple named Jack and Nancy Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright) head out to try and uncover what's really going on and soon they find out that these plants that have sprung up in the area are creating clones of people and using them to create workers in a massive hive bent on taking over the city and then quite possibly the world.
This wonderfully paranoid film starts off with an eerie set piece in which the pods come to Earth and it really doesn't let up from there. It's paced exceptionally well and shot with a careful eye towards creating an aura of tension and dread. The dark color scheme suits the material very well and as Bennell's investigation becomes more in-depth the more the shadows and the darkness seem to creep into the frame. Sutherland excels n the lead role, playing the part with enough initial skepticism that we can accept him as a man of science and in turn making his voyage of discovery all the more frightening as he's ultimately shocked with the reality of the situation. The supporting cast surrounding him also turn in excellent performances, with a young Goldblum standing out a bit from the rest.
For a film with a simple PG rating, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers remains fairly strong stuff. Granted, it isn't gory or bloody as so many horror films tend to be but there is no shortage of eerie and disturbing moments scattered throughout the film. The scene in which Bennell's car is accosted by a deranged man in the street is rather unsettling and when the bodies Bennell finds turn up covered in a plant like fur, it's fairly creepy and certainly plenty weird! Any time the pod people are on screen the movie is chilling. Add to that the skillfully layered atmosphere of impending doom and the ever growing paranoia that those around us are no longer who we thought they were and you can see how this film remains as effective and frightening now as it was in 1978.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MGM presents the film in AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen in a solid 1080p high definition transfer. It won't be your 'go to' disc for reference quality video but it does offer up an improvement over the standard definition release that came out a few years ago (and which is included in this combo pack release). There looks to be some light edge enhancement in spots but compression artifacts are never an issue. Some mild print damage is there but you probably won't be bothered by it much at all, it just sort of adds to the vibe. All in all, things look pretty good.
The primary audio mix is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, though an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround mix is also provided. Subtitles are offered up in English SDH, French and Spanish. Again, this Blu-ray does offer an improvement over the standard definition release, even if it isn't a revelation per se. Dialogue is strong and clear, the score sounds good, and there's some decent directional effects here and there. Bass response is good, but it doesn't overpower the dialogue. No problems here.
The Blu-ray disc features a commentary track from director Philip Kaufman, the first few minutes of which are, well, dull. He doesn't have much to say initially. Thankfully, that changes once the movie starts to pick up a bit and that slow start soon turns into an interesting discussion of the director's intent and motivation and how he really hoped to rely as much on the characters as on the set pieces to carry the film's impact. Along with that he talks about casting and location work, speaks about some of the effects work, tells a few fun stories about some of the stars like Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy, and his thoughts on the film's rather bleak ending.
There's also a fifteen minute featurette entitled Re-Visitors From Outer Space, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Pod (15:45). Included here are interviews with Kaufman, screenwriter Richter, and actors Sutherland and Veronica Cartwright (but not Goldblum or Nimoy). A second featurette takes a look at the special effects used in the movie. Entitled Practical Magic: The Special Effects Pod (4:36), it's an interesting examination of how the famous pods from the movie were created and how they were used so effectively in the opening scene. Also lending insight into how the effects were handled and manipulated is The Man Behind The Scream: The Sound Effects (12:47) which takes a look at how sound was used for specific effects in the picture by Ben Burtt and the important role those sound effects play in the picture. The last featurette is The Invasion Will Be Televised: The Cinematography (5:24) which obviously examines the tense camera work that Michael Chapman (yep, the same Michael Chapman who shot Taxi Driver) utilized in the movie. Rounding out the extra features on the second disc is the original theatrical trailer and some nifty animated menus.
The DVD disc that's in this set includes the commentary from Kaufman only. It's nice that MGM carried everything over to the Blu-ray, but there's nothing new here.
The Final Word:
One of the best remakes ever, Kaufman's Invasion Of The Body Snatchers looks and sounds fine on this release but the real reason to upgrade is for the wealth of extra features that MGM has included this time around. The Blu-ray release from MGM looks and sounds pretty decent and carries over all of the extras included on the special edition DVD release.