INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Against all the pods
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1978 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)
Director Philip Kaufman
Cast Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum
It’s vanishingly rare for a remake of a classic to match the original, but you can file Philip Kaufman’s take on Don Siegel’s 1956 original alongside The Thing.
It relocates Jack Finney’s paranoid tale of identity-stealing “pods” from a small town milieu to San Francisco, bringing a sense of scale but remaining fundamentally faithful. It’s brilliantly cast, Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum bringing a quirky individuality to their characters which emphasises what’s under threat. Handheld camera places you in the urban crowd, while images of distortion – a spyhole view, funhouse mirrors, noir shadows, a cracked windscreen – create a heightened, off-kilter vibe.
Physical effects showing the pods disgorging their contents – a gooey meld of flowering and childbirth – are memorably icky. Fresh from his work on Star Wars, Ben Burtt matches them with his sound design, a symphony of
Handheld camera places you in the urban crowd
heartbeat pulses and raspy breath, while jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin’s score brilliantly combines synths, strings and discordant percussion. A triumph in every respect.
Extras Eleven years on from the old Arrow Video Blu-ray, you’d expect new on-disc bonuses for this UHD debut, but no. Hey ho.
It’s a decent selection, mind. Kaufman’s old commentary is very informative. Kim Newman lets Ben Wheatley and Norman J Warren get the odd word in during a group discussion (52 minutes). Film historian Annette Insdorf has perceptive observations (17 minutes), and a talking head on Finney (11 minutes) is instructive.
These featurettes hail from 2013; four more (39 minutes, all decent) date from 2007; Kaufman, Sutherland and the writer all contribute. Plus: trailer; booklet; poster; six art cards. Ian Berriman
The sound of a busker’s banjo was recorded by Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia – he was a friend of one of the sound effects team.