The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Elevator Pitch: Matthew Bennell and Elizabeth Driscoll both of whom work for the San Francisco health department begin to notice changes in those close to them, Elizabeth sees changes in her boyfriend after she has taken home an unusual flower she found. As time passes it becomes evident to them and their two close friends that the population is somehow different, and it is not long before they find that when humans go to sleep replicas are born out of large pods, taking over the roles of the original people whose bodies become grey ash, taken away by the refuse trucks. To keep awake the humans take speed, but will it be enough.

Content: No sex, but just a bit of female nudity, but she is a vegetable, so does that count? There are many scenes of the pods extruding the replica bodies and the real people beginning to crumble – quite distressing. When one pod person is destroyed it is unpleasant. The humans are gradually marginalised as the pod people are seen extending their areas of influence. Matthew discovers a vast warehouse where pods are being grown and destroys it.

A View: This movie has often been cited as being one of the best remakes ever and got terrific marks on Rotten Tomatoes. IMDb did not choose to tell us how much it cost, or made, but in the trivia we find that the lesser players were paid about $25,000 each and Donald Sutherland about $250,000. So it probably made money. There is no let up to the feeling of doom it engenders, which is not a million miles way from how we feel today (This written during the COVID 19 lockdown), so I would cautiously recommend it if you can download it for nothing.

Additional info: The timing of the film seems to be current, i.e. 1978. Did we really wear trousers like that?