Movie Info
Movie Name: Body Snatchers
Studio: Warner Bros.
Genre(s): Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): January 28, 1994
MPAA Rating: R
Scream if you want humans!!!
Marti Malone (Gabrielle Anwar), her father Steve (Terry Kinney), her step-mother Carol (Meg Tilly), and her baby brother Andy (Reilly Murphy) are moving onto an Alabama military base while her father investigates dangerous chemicals being stored on the base for the EPA. When a crazed soldier warns Marti that “they get you when you sleep”, Marti thinks nothing of it until she notices people changing. The horror is revealed, and Marti and her family find themselves just trying to escape the base and stop the ever growing army of body snatchers.
Directed by Abel Ferrara, Body Snatchers is the third remake of Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers. Following the 1956 and 1978 versions, this version had a very limited release and made very little money at the theater. The movie received mixed reviews but some critics like Ebert felt it was a superior film.
“I’m melting! I’m melting! What a world, what a world!”
The first version of Body Snatchers I saw was the 1978 version…then saw the original 1956 version…then I saw this version. Though this version does have some merit, it just doesn’t compare to the previous entries, though I do like some of the changes.
I like that in this version, the “pod people” are militant. With the army as their base structure, they can have a more systematic “secret” invasion. This seems a bit more realistic and more proactive than the first two films which relied on more of a citywide shutdown to work. The problem with the film is in the attempts to make the story appeal more to younger viewers, having a young lead didn’t help the movie. Plus, once the invasion was exposed, the movie fell apart.
NOOOOOO!!! Not a Big Chill reunion!!!!
The cast struggles a bit in the film. The movie starts out about being the family unit of the Malones, but Gabrielle Anwar doesn’t hold the screen. I did kind of like Christine Elise as her friend, but she was underused. R. Lee Ermey (drill sergeant extraordinaire) was criminally underused as the base leader…it doesn’t make much sense for a guy known for being loud and boisterous to become a pod person with a level personality unless you show the change. Meg Tilly struggles for direction and there is a small role by Forest Whitaker as a soldier who sees his structured world crumble. Billy Wirth as Tim Young (Marti’s love interest and ally) doesn’t ever develop.
Oh no! My pasta attacked me…and it’s al dente!
Visually, this movie also falls far behind the 1978 version. The effects on that film were great…here, the pod just look like spaghetti exploded over the cast. Then you have the awful helicopter fall scene at the end of the film with Reilly Murphy.
Body Snatchers isn’t a bad film, but there are better versions of this movie. Like the 1978 version, this version relies a bit more on horror than sci-fi, but it still has some sci-fi elements. Body Snatchers is superior to the really horrible 2007 version simply called The Invasion which starred Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.
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