Something is a little bit odd about the residents of Small Town USA in Don Siegel's tale of paranoia at its most paranoid. The Good Doctor. Forrest Gump-esque run. X-ray. Insurance salesmen are shady, if you don't believe me watch the Fargo TV series. Pretend Uncle? Ultra sexy Becky Driscoll. Pretend Mommy? The Lawnmower Man. Danny the Shrink. Jukebox dancing. Jack doesn't look like Jeff Goldblum. Cuckoo clock. The ultimate John Doe. Morticia Addams? It's alive? I've heard that line before. Badass doctors smoke cigarettes. I'm sacred of creepy basements. Body double? Nick the Cop. If you don't want fingerprints, find some acid. The way Becky Driscoll looks in her jeans. Cellar dweller. Speedy recovery. Bootleg photosynthesis. I wish my…

You will be assimilated

This 1956 science fiction thriller has a cool concept and is even more interesting taking into account all of the societal pressures responsible for its conception. It is also one of the somewhat rare examples of a film that has a remake that was far superior to the original, typical of sci-fi as seen with The Fly and The Thing. Its analogies to the Cold War paranoia of Communism are easy to see. It is about creatures from outer space that can assume exact likenesses to those around you, making it very difficult to distinguish your friends from your enemies. Just like that Red Commie Menace. Old Mrs. Everett next door could very easily just be…

Doctor ‘smooth-as-fuck’ Miles is summoned back from the medical conference he was attending because of the stream of patients that wanted to speak to him in his general practitioner office. When he returns, every appointment is cancelled, people don’t seem to go to restaurants anymore and, strangest of all, a handful of people begin to withhold their loved ones for complete strangers - something which the town’s psychiatrist explains to be caused by some kind of mass hysteria epidemic. But Miles and his sexy love interest Becky aren’t so sure about that explanation and with some friends they attempt to solve the mystery themselves, stumbling upon a much more shocking truth: an invasion of body-snatchers! The plot summary almost sounds…

Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a horror film with very little onscreen horror. Instead, the horror is that of idea and of suggestion. It is the creeping horror of paranoia, of the fear that you or your loves ones are not what they seem. This horrific idea flows through Siegel's film, effortlessly gripping any audience susceptible to these fears.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" follows Kevin McCarthy's Santa Mira, California doctor as he is faced with patients complaining of loved ones acting differently or not being themselves at all. When the doctor pokes around the phenomenon, he finds that his town is under siege by forces turning the townsfolk into emotionless, soulless shells of their former selves.…

"They're here already! You're next!"

I'm back on the Moviedrome wagon, with just six films to go before I've finished season 1. Up next is Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel's sci-fi classic about people in a small town being replaced by alien impersonators. To say that it's been influential on the genre is something of an understatement, but I was curious to see how the movie itself would hold up.

As it turns out, Invasion of the Body Snatchers holds up quite well. Since most viewers know the premise going in, Siegel's direction and the ensemble's performances immediately force the viewer to suspect every town member, and pay attention to background actors for any hint of passivity in…

Probably the ultimate template of science fiction as social metaphor, with The Twilight Zone appearing two years later. It's more effective to me as metaphor than as a thriller, although its narrative neatness is admirable too.
Everything seems built to heighten some ideas, which are clever, powerful, and at the same time immediately understandable. The feeling of uneasiness in a superficially functional society, the immediate reasonable suspicion towards everyone and the need to stay awake are examples of why this is a perfect allegory adaptable to different kinds of quiet oppression. The film manages to make us interpret conformism and normalcy as eerie, even before we know what's going on.
The scariest image: the whole town gathering in the center…

Finally made my way back to the original after loving and rewatching the 1978 remake for years, and it's absolutely worth the watch.

I don't know if this is the first iteration of the 'doppelganger' concept in pop culture, but it's a perfect execution, and as effective as it is for me, I can't help but wonder at how terrifying it must have been for viewers of the 50s, who perhaps had never been exposed to the trope. If anyone knows of an earlier 'doppelganger' story in American cinema I'd appreciate a note.

It's just such a thrill to see the noose slowly close around this Stepfordian society of everybodys-a-neighbor, so chilling to hear the voice of reason close over…

Time to go to something more classic, something I've never seen before either. Probably slightly blasphemous on my behalf, but at least it's something i've seen now. So lets talk about it a little bit.

The movie opens with a mad man, being apprehended by a team of doctors and law enforcers, as they ask him to tell them what's gone on, the movie flashes back to his local town. Everything seems completely normal, but family members start to become suspect that their relatives aren't the people they used to be. The doctor and his companions, then find an "unfinished" dead body, with the perfect frame to match the man who found him, they're now suspect that beings from another…

Esta cinta de ciencia ficción es una auténtica pesadilla y lo más desesperanzador que te puedes echar a la cara.

Años 50. Guerra fría. La población norteamericana vive en un estado de paranoia con la posibilidad de que, en cualquier momento, estalle una guerra contra los soviéticos. El macartismo estaba dando sus últimos coletazos y no eran pocas las películas que soltaban, de manera más o menos original, propaganda anti-comunista para salvaguardar el estilo de vida norteamericano y el mundo libre (o eso dicen ellos...)

La ciencia ficción es un género perfecto para introducir alegorías y, en esta cinta, se plasma, de manera magistral, el miedo al comunismo como mal en la sombra que es capaz de destruir la individualidad,…