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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

tomatometer

95

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 2

Employing gritty camerawork and evocative sound effects, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a powerful remake that expands upon themes and ideas only lightly explored in the original.

83

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1

Employing gritty camerawork and evocative sound effects, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a powerful remake that expands upon themes and ideas only lightly explored in the original.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 33,273

My Rating

Movie Info

This remake of the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers moves the action from small-town USA to 1970s San Francisco and replaces at least part of the original's psychological horror with special effects. Spores rain forth, unseen, from outer space, and soon strange flowers begin popping up all over the city. After bringing one of these hybrid specimens home with her one night, biologist Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices that her live-in boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle),

Aug 28, 2001

MGM Home Entertainment

Cast

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All Critics (42) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (2) | DVD (22)

Gives remakes a good name.

October 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This film wants to have it both ways: to have a more urbane, more "important" scope than the original, and yet retain some of its inexpensive intimacy as well.

October 22, 2010 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers validates the entire concept of remakes.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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Ideas that Siegel knocked off in a few shots are expanded to fill entire sequences -- but they're good ideas, and can stand a little stretching.

May 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
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Kaufman here turns in his most Movie Brattish film, but soft-pedals on both his special effects and knowing in-jokiness in a way that puts De Palma to shame.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's a little something extra in virtually every frame of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman's dazzling remake of one of the cleverest of horror classics/

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment (1)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This terrific remake never lets the audience forget that it should be frightened.

August 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

Very entertaining, and despite the by now over familiar-plot, pleasantly suspenseful.

May 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

one of the great sci-fi horrorshows, a movie that gooses you with its premise, makes you laugh and jump, and ultimately leaves you with something you can't quite shake

September 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk
Q Network Film Desk

[Philip] Kaufman's version persuasively asserts its right to life as an imaginative reflection of our time...

April 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Parallax View
Parallax View

Siegel gave the frissons classical sharpness while Kaufman goes for baroque erudition

February 13, 2010 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

Indeed, Invasion of the Body Snatcher, for all its well-crafted creepshow conceits, is probably the most purposefully obtuse fear film ever.

September 24, 2007 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

If not quite as great as its predecessor, still a pretty damn fine genre picture.

September 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Antagony & Ecstasy

It's not only the best of the four films based on Jack Finney's story, but also one of the best films of the 1970s.

August 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

A superior sci-fi thriller that makes even raindrops, plants and electrical cords take on sinister life.

August 10, 2007
Sacramento Bee

This socially aware 70s cinematic stew artfully blends cool, shadowy noir with steamy, gooey horror.

August 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Horror.com
Horror.com

The script by W. D. Richter relies less on clichés and stock situations that most thrillers of this type, and gives us character development so that we care what happens to these folks.

August 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

The film collapses midway -- because of unsure and sloppy direction, splintered story continuity, and the overacting of Adams, Cartwright, and others.

May 30, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comments (5)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Audience Reviews for Invasion of the Body Snatchers

With the incredible abundance of slasher, psychological, and supernatural horror these days, not many people have a good idea of what exactly "body horror" is. But there are a few very well-known examples, and up there with the ALIEN trilogy, THE THING and its recent prequel, and BLACK SWAN, is INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Even still today, due to the amount that is left to viewers' imagination, alongside fantastic directing and acting, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS makes an impact. For a comparison, the level of tensity in this film is just as high as J. J. Abrams's CLOVERFIELD, which was made an entire thirty years later. If you're looking from a sci-fi/horror film that isn't overly dated or cheesy, but still leaves you with a pale face and knuckles by the end, I'd rent the 1978 version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. It's not quite perfect, but every minute will hold and entertain you.

Full Review: http://wp.me/p1Urcx-tG
November 22, 2011
spielberg00

Super Reviewer

This remake of the classic 1956 Don Siegel film is maybe the best remake of all time. With the greatest sound design I have ever heard, the audio track adds a whole other level of tension to this great film. The screams of the body snatchers will forever be in the back of my mind.
October 25, 2011
Graham Jones

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Foreign Titles

  • Die Körperfresser kommen (DE)
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (UK)
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