Halloween Horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

The Donald Sutherland version delivers plenty of chills, including the best scream in horror history.

Written by Jack Finney (novel) and W.D. Richter (screenplay); directed by Philip Kaufman; starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, and Veronica Cartwright.

On the list of things I really love, horror movies and the Cold War are right at the top. Luckily for me, those two often go hand in hand. Since I’ve been reading so many great blog posts on Halloween lately and have filled my calendar with some wonderfully gory screenings, I’m in the spirit of horror-movie watching. So, natch, I pulled Invasion of the Body Snatchers off the shelf. Before the great debate begins, I am talking about the 1978 version, not the 1956 original, or the third, 2007 remake. Why? Because I have a deep love for Jeff Goldblum. Moving on.

The film begins with Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), from the department of health, working with the lovely Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) to rid the city of rat-infested restaurants. Everything seems normal in the battle against roaches, but when Elizabeth's boyfriend starts going wonky she initially thinks it’s something she’s done, until she notices strange behaviour popping up everywhere. People aren’t who they used to be, plus there are these odd flowers sprouting all over San Francisco. Let’s just say that what happens to you if you pick the flowers makes you never want to go frolicking amidst the dandelions ever again.

Since the Cold War spanned the making of the first two films, there’s a heavy presence of the "invisible-outsider-within-paranoid-infiltration" theme. But what really stands out about this movie is the soundscape (a horror Cold War movie with amazing sound – my dream come true). Often when a horror movie disappoints, the letdown is in the monster’s reveal. Sometimes it's a matter of effects, and often it's the simple fact that nothing is as terrifying as what is conjured by our own imaginations. But the reveal becomes even trickier when the monster physically looks like the hero. Invasion of the Body Snatchers circumvents this obstacle for the majority of the movie, focusing instead on an eerie landscape that looks normal but is aurally slightly off. The score (by jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin, who was allegedly so worn out by the process that he vowed never to do another movie) adds to the mood and to the movie, which contains arguably one of the best scream sequences in film history.

Not only does Invasion of the Body Snatchers twist the audience’s notions of a scream (instead of a call for help from the human victim, it becomes the call of the possessed), but it also has a simplicity and shock factor so alarming that it makes a perfect case study of the importance of sound. When Sutherland points his finger at Veronica Cartwright (whose wonderfully hysterical performance is rivaled only by that of Shelley Duvall in The Shining) and that great hollow screech pours out of his mouth, the entire movie is summed up in one aural moment.

So turn up your sound and be prepared to be scared. Oh, and did I mention Jeff Goldblum?

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