Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

It has been a slow evening as I mentally prepare myself for the Halloween parade tomorrow and with that, I decided to finally venture into Riverdale. Before I got to that point tonight, I decided to watch the 1956 sci-fi/horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Plot/ A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

There many great sci-fi movies from the 1950s, most of which built on the paranoia of the era and created horrific narratives that resonated with the population of the day. In many ways, it is those elements that allow this somewhat simple storyline to develop into something much darker and memorable. This movie is a tremendous watch featuring solid performances, a claustrophobic dark atmosphere, perfect pacing, and a soundtrack that allowed everything to build a tense mood. Of course, the realism of the aliens being human added a depth that was often misplaced by the creatures in the rubber suits that made up the majority of the sci-fi films of the era. Yes, there may be some plot holes and littered inside the storyline and some of the effects may not totally hold up across the decades, but those are but small flaws in this classic film. In the end, while others have attempted to recreate this movie in different eras and still this version is by far the best. If fact, in many ways it is arguably the best sci-fi flick of the 1950s and a movie that must be seen.