"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978) Film Screening

About Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Director Don Siegel (who would later give us Dirty Harry) and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring (who wrote the novel that would give us Out of the Past) provide another example of a terrific 1950s short story made into an iconic film in the decade that birthed science fiction cinema. Kevin McCarthy stars as a small-town doctor who discovers that emotionless alien duplicates are slowly replacing the population of his California community. The filmmakers take material that could have ended up as an above average Twilight Zone episode and transform it into one of the most chilling and influential sci-fi pictures of all time. The simple, low-budget, black and white B-picture has resonated for generations because it plays on timeless, universal themes that, like John Carpenter’s The Thing, can be read as a metaphor for contemporary times, regardless of when you see it. The film was so effective it spawned three official remakes (and counting).

About Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

One of the best examples of when Hollywood took a B-movie and remade it into an A-picture, this second version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Philip Kaufman (The Wanderers, The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) with a screenplay by W. D. Richter (Slither, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China). Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, and Veronica Cartwright star as San Francisco residents who discover that everyone they know is turning into affectless shadows of their former selves due to an unknown, undetected alien attack. As they rush to uncover the truth, they’re met with skepticism and dismissal, even from their friend, the noted psychiatrist David Kibner. 

Screening back to back as part of the Somerville Theatre's Great Remakes series.

Tickets:
$16 single feature / $18 double feature

Location: Somerville Theatre