Body Snatchers (1993).

The Stage.

Adaptations of Invasion always kind of morph into interesting time capsules of modern issues going on when the adaptation was made. The basic premise - which I’m sure everyone is aware of at this point - is that aliens somehow take over human bodies in an effort to take over the planet. In this 1993 film, Abel Ferrara’s first and possibly only big budget flick, the setting is a military base that is being overrun by Body Snatchers. Our main characters are a family of four who have moved to the military base for a bit so that the father can conduct a chemical safety study for the EPA.

The Review.

The family unit has some seams that we learn about early on. The 17 year old daughter, Marty, has contempt for her father because he remarried after her mother died ten years prior. Because of this, she resents her step-mom, but does have a special bond with her six-year old brother. She’s a tad rebellious, but nothing that feels salacious or out of control. At the base, she meets a few friends - the daughter of the base general named Jen and a young helicopter pilot named Tim. 

We understand that there are some things going on at the base, but really don’t see anything until 35 minutes in. It’s worth the wait, as we see a head disintegrate into a pillow, the human a mere husk as the life force has been transferred to the alien taking their place. Shortly after this point, things get crazy, but it does feel pretty tame for an Abel Ferrara picture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come close to the 1978 classic, and in my opinion it comes down to two big reasons. First, the relationships Marty makes on the base don’t feel solidified. For example, I think we’re supposed to believe that Marty and Jen are good friends at the end of the film, but we’d only really seen them hang out twice. The romantic relationship between Marty and Tim, aka the telegraphed last man standing with an obvious way off of the base, feels extremely undercooked. I have no reason to believe that Tim would have risked his hide to save her during the climax of the film instead of leaving the base and getting backup.

Despite the unconvincing relationships and knowing where the story was probably heading, I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the film…and then we get to the ending which felt rushed, which led to a suspicion that washed over me that the theme the filmmakers were going for just wasn’t going to land. The overarching allegory here is that of individuality vs conforming, but aside from a frantic Forest Whitaker freaking out about not wanting to become one of them, there’s nothing about the importance of individuality going on with any of the characters. The film could have been saying something about the risks of blindly following orders while being a part of the military, but if that’s what the filmmakers were going for, it didn’t work. There’s one fairly predictable yet still shocking scene during the ending but it’s impact is severely undercut but some awful green screen work. We then cut to an epilogue set to narration that compliments one that started the film which was definitely inspired by Terminator 2’s Sarah Connor. Both the opening and closing narrations feel like a product of studio notes based on lack of faith in their audience and ultimately end up being kind of silly. The last shot attempts to cause unease for exiting theater patrons but it just fell really flat for me as we cut to a big THE END.

The End.

I have some other minor nitpicks about the movie, like how characters make really dumb decisions - a special shout-out to the dumb military dude who shows up in the bathroom at the beginning of the film to scare Marty, but for some reason apparently goes back to the base for some reason - or the inconsistencies in how and when the aliens take over peoples bodies - some just wait until the subject is sleeping, some are brought to a bunker by force, etcetera, but I’ll just stop here and say that this film was pretty disappointing and if you want to see an adaptation based on this story, there are plenty of others you can and should check out.