Blu-ray Review: ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ [Collector’s Edition]: Shout! Factory (aka Scream Factory) knocks it out of the park once again with this excellent presentation of the 1978 sci-fi/horror classic.
[rating=5]
The Film:
Jack Finney’s classic sci-fi horror novel The Body Snatchers has been adapted for film four times over the years, although it’s generally 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which served as a metaphor for the 50’s American Red Scare communist witch-hunt, that remains the most iconic.
But Phillip Kaufman’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake, for my money, is its equal. It’s one of the best remakes of all time, along with John Carpenter’s The Thing (in fact both remakes share similar traits. Perfect for a double feature).
Kaufmann replaces communist paranoia with the self-centered “me generation,” obsessed with psychotherapy and New Age fads, placing their own needs above others, and often becoming unrecognizable to their loved ones, which lead to a rapid divorce rate during the post-Watergate era.
Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams star as Matthew Bennell and Elizabeth Driscoll, a pair of San Francisco based health department employees, alarmed when they notice friends, co-workers and loved ones personalities change after exposure to an unusual plant, which they soon realize is extraterrestrial and dangerous in origin. Their suspicions of an alien takeover get downplayed by a reassuring therapy guru (Leonard Nimoy), who thinks it’s all in their minds.
He’s wrong. The earth is threatened by alien organisms that clone and replace their human counterparts, with gruesome and unnerving results. Can Bennell and Driscoll, along with friends Jack and Nancy Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright) stop the threat, despite seemingly insurmountable odds? That’s the question ultimately answered by one of the most memorable twist endings of all time.
Exploring San Francisco’s inimitable architecture and hippy subculture, Invasion is wonderfully odd and menacing, with biting gallows humor and reverence towards its source material (original Invasion actor Kevin McCarthy’s cameo is note perfect). It also has some effectively gruesome effects, even more impressive, given the films limited budget. The films sense of loss of identity remains unnerving.
And now Kaufman’s film is getting the deluxe treatment it deserves with Shout! Factory’s Collectors Edition. Like the alien pods that replace their human hosts, it usurps all previous home video releases.
Video:
Blu-ray’s of 70s films are often tricky: it was a muddy visual decade, with high elements of grain. But their 2k interpositive scan is gorgeous, helping to illuminate a very dark film with inventive cinematography. Extra layers of detail are leaps and bounds over the original DVD, and crisper than previous Blu-ray editions.
Audio:
The film is equipped with both an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround mix. These were originally on the 2007 MGM Blu-ray and sound fantastic. Both are well-balanced: neither score, dialogue or the film’s grotesque sound effects are underserved or muddied.
EXTRAS:
Special features are always one of the biggest selling point of Scream Factory/Shout! Factory releases and once again they don’t disappoint, with a bevy of exclusive featurettes along with extras ported over from earlier releases.
Let’s cover the new stuff first: there are lots of goodies here, including several entertaining interviews with cast and crew. “Star-Crossed in The Invasion” features an interview with Adams, and the actress is charmingly frank about her experiences on set, such as falling for Sutherland, being mortified at her nude scene and showing that she can still “do that thing” with her eyes.
“Leading the Invasion: An Interview with Actor Art Hindle,” is a whopping 25 minute interview with a cast member who had a fairly small amount of screen time in the film. It’s a bit of a slog, but his memories of working with Nimoy are quite affectionate. “Re-Creating the Invasion” is an illuminating recollection from screenwriter W.D. Richter, who discusses the choice for shooting in San Francisco, and the aforementioned “me generation” subtext.
The best of the bunch is “Scoring the Invasion: An Interview with Composer Denny Zeitlin,” who reveals he got the gig due to his background in psychiatry. He also notes that despite the pleasant working experience, he only did one film score. He wanted to end on a high note.
The film also includes a new commentary track from film historian Steve Haberman, who gives great insight into the film’s production and legacy. Kaufman’s commentary from the original DVD release is also included-the first time its been included on a Blu-ray release.
One of the coolest extras is the episode “Time is Just A Place” from Science Fiction Theater. It’s a fun 50’s sci-fi jaunt based on another Finney story (which predicted the Roomba!). There’s also an impressive collection of vintage trailers, radio spots and posters.
As far as extras included from earlier releases, “The Man Behind The Scream: The Sound Effects Pod: An Interview with Ben Burtt and Sound editor Bonnie Koehler” is wonderfully illuminating. Burtt (the man behind the Star Wars signature sounds) recalls using his pregnant wife’s ultrasound recording to get the ominous sound of the gestating pods, while Koehler recorded chopping up vegetation to get the sickly sounds of hatching alien embryos.
Other featurettes of note include a short documenting the films visual effects, and “Re-Visitors From Outer Space, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pod,” which includes interviews with Kaufmann, Sutherland, Cartwright and DP Michael Chapman.
Final Verdict: Invasion of The Body Snatchers diehards will howl like invading aliens over Shout! Factory’s excellent Collectors Edition. It’s another feather in their cap of ever impressive releases.
You can order ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ [Collector’s Edition] via Amazon below:
