Science Fiction wouldn’t be Science Fiction without its tropes. As a genre, it’s been around for some say over two centuries; and – as a consequence – it’s probably built up an ample supply of things we’ve seen before.
This isn’t to suggest in any way that incorporating something that’s either been done before or risks bordering on being downright cliché is necessarily a bad thing. The dirty little secret to being a fan of any genre is that we enter each and every project with a level of expectation we want to be met minimally: if a director, screenwriter, and assembled cast and crew go out of their way to give up something a bit too fresh or a bit too different, then we’re equally capable of tuning out, losing interest, and going elsewhere. Tropes are called tropes because they’re familiar – perhaps more so than we like – but that doesn’t make them cheap or inexcusable in and of themselves. A great story can still tread in amicable territory just so long as it doesn’t cheapen the whole trip.
For example, aliens coming down to Earth intent upon occupying our bodies while going about whatever nefarious agenda they seek to achieve has been glorified on screens big and small, but perhaps it’s never been any more glorious than it was aboard 1956’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Don Siegel directed the adaptation of the Jack Finney novel – simply titled “The Body Snatchers” and published in 1954 – and the effort gave big roles to Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones. The original source material – along with this inaugural exploration – was so good that Hollywood has gone back to it for remakes not once but twice: 1978’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers cast Donald Sutherland as its lead and it shifted the focus from the original small town setting to the big city while 1993’s Body Snatchers took a step back with choosing to establish its stomping ground as the great American military base. There are some who suggest that the 1978 version is the highpoint in realizing this particular story for audiences; while that might be true, I still prefer the original because it blazed the trail first in such a way that the project was eventually inducted into the U.S.’s National Film Registry because of its lasting cultural, historical, and aesthetic impact.
Still, when something works, I’ve always found it refreshing to know that – as a consumer of products – there are alternatives; and one such trope that’s fresh on my mind as of late has been the whole ‘body snatching’ phenomenon that, yes, has made the rounds in various ways across Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. So if body snatching is your thing, then here are a few other suggestions that might be worth your time and attention.
This isn’t to suggest in any way that incorporating something that’s either been done before or risks bordering on being downright cliché is necessarily a bad thing. The dirty little secret to being a fan of any genre is that we enter each and every project with a level of expectation we want to be met minimally: if a director, screenwriter, and assembled cast and crew go out of their way to give up something a bit too fresh or a bit too different, then we’re equally capable of tuning out, losing interest, and going elsewhere. Tropes are called tropes because they’re familiar – perhaps more so than we like – but that doesn’t make them cheap or inexcusable in and of themselves. A great story can still tread in amicable territory just so long as it doesn’t cheapen the whole trip.
For example, aliens coming down to Earth intent upon occupying our bodies while going about whatever nefarious agenda they seek to achieve has been glorified on screens big and small, but perhaps it’s never been any more glorious than it was aboard 1956’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Don Siegel directed the adaptation of the Jack Finney novel – simply titled “The Body Snatchers” and published in 1954 – and the effort gave big roles to Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones. The original source material – along with this inaugural exploration – was so good that Hollywood has gone back to it for remakes not once but twice: 1978’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers cast Donald Sutherland as its lead and it shifted the focus from the original small town setting to the big city while 1993’s Body Snatchers took a step back with choosing to establish its stomping ground as the great American military base. There are some who suggest that the 1978 version is the highpoint in realizing this particular story for audiences; while that might be true, I still prefer the original because it blazed the trail first in such a way that the project was eventually inducted into the U.S.’s National Film Registry because of its lasting cultural, historical, and aesthetic impact.
Still, when something works, I’ve always found it refreshing to know that – as a consumer of products – there are alternatives; and one such trope that’s fresh on my mind as of late has been the whole ‘body snatching’ phenomenon that, yes, has made the rounds in various ways across Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. So if body snatching is your thing, then here are a few other suggestions that might be worth your time and attention.
Invaders From Mars (1953)
Of course, I realize that 1953’s Invaders From Mars predates the original Body Snatchers by a few years; and I suspect that there may be readers who show up suggesting that perhaps this article should be structured in such a way as to highlight the 1956 movie is more like a copy or iteration of it. Indeed, both flicks share a heady dose of paranoia that fuels a good portion of the narrative; and I suppose there’s nothing incorrect about suggesting that the latter may very well have been influenced by the former. However, Invaders ends – depending upon which version you’ve seen – with the strong indication that what audiences just saw was little more than a bad dream; and I prefer the greater sense of dread that pervades so much of Body Snatchers.
In any event, here’s the plot summary for the film as provided by IMDB.com:
“One night, young David McLean sees a spaceship crash into a nearby sandpit. His father goes to investigate, but comes back changed. Where once he was cheerful and affectionate, he's now sullen and snarlingly rude. Others fall into the sandpit and begin acting like him: cold, ill-tempered and conspiratorial. David knows that aliens are taking over the bodies of humans, but he'll soon discover there have been far more of these terrible thefts than he could have imagined. The young doom-monger finds some serious help in a lady doctor and a brilliant astronomer. Soon they meet the aliens: green creatures with insect-like eyes. These beings prove to be slaves to their leader: a large, silent head with ceaselessly shifting eyes and two tentacles on either side, each of which branches off into three smaller tentacles. It's up to the redoubtable earth trio to stop its evil plans.”
In any event, here’s the plot summary for the film as provided by IMDB.com:
“One night, young David McLean sees a spaceship crash into a nearby sandpit. His father goes to investigate, but comes back changed. Where once he was cheerful and affectionate, he's now sullen and snarlingly rude. Others fall into the sandpit and begin acting like him: cold, ill-tempered and conspiratorial. David knows that aliens are taking over the bodies of humans, but he'll soon discover there have been far more of these terrible thefts than he could have imagined. The young doom-monger finds some serious help in a lady doctor and a brilliant astronomer. Soon they meet the aliens: green creatures with insect-like eyes. These beings prove to be slaves to their leader: a large, silent head with ceaselessly shifting eyes and two tentacles on either side, each of which branches off into three smaller tentacles. It's up to the redoubtable earth trio to stop its evil plans.”
The Stepford Wives (1975)
In all honesty, 1975’s The Stepford Wives is a film that I haven’t seen in years. And – for the record – it isn’t thematically the same as Body Snatchers in that the folks responsible for the snatch-and-replace of the lovely Stepford women – the wives of important and powerful men – are most definitely not some aliens seeking to penetrate our culture. Still, the film operates largely on the same psychological level as it plays fast and loose on the fears of these ladies who find themselves disposable only so that they can be substituted with replicas who made for better ‘arm candy’ in the society in which they live.
Here's the plot summary as provided by our friends at IMDB.com:
“The Stepford Wives is about a small suburb where the women happily go about their housework - cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking gourmet meals - to please their husbands. Unfortunately, Bobbie and Joanna discover that the village's wives have been replaced with robots, and Joanna's husband wants in on the action.”
Here's the plot summary as provided by our friends at IMDB.com:
“The Stepford Wives is about a small suburb where the women happily go about their housework - cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking gourmet meals - to please their husbands. Unfortunately, Bobbie and Joanna discover that the village's wives have been replaced with robots, and Joanna's husband wants in on the action.”
The Hidden (1987)
Truly one of the great B-Movies to emerge from the late 1980’s, The Hidden is a great cat-and-mouse chase caper that has two body-swapping aliens – one a criminal, one a peacemaker – arriving on our planet and leaving a trail of mayhem in their pursuit. Part Science Fiction and part ‘buddy cop’ film, it’s the kind of story that subsists largely on the chemistry of its various players, including two fabulous grounding performances by Kyle MacLachlan (as the alien peacemaker) and Michael Nouri (as the Earth cop who joins him on his mission). While it may lack the scope that Body Snatchers’ impending invasion threatens, it makes up for it in action set pieces and a final act of redemption that suggests maybe the aliens are more human than some of us.
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“An alien parasite with the ability to possess human bodies goes on a violent crime spree in LA, committing dozens of murders and robberies. In pursuit of the extraterrestrial criminal is an FBI agent, and the local officer investigating the rash of violence. As they close in on the vicious intruder, the city faces a brutal threat like no other it has ever encountered.”
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“An alien parasite with the ability to possess human bodies goes on a violent crime spree in LA, committing dozens of murders and robberies. In pursuit of the extraterrestrial criminal is an FBI agent, and the local officer investigating the rash of violence. As they close in on the vicious intruder, the city faces a brutal threat like no other it has ever encountered.”
The Faculty (1998)
From what I recall of 1998’s The Faculty (and remember thinking at the time), the script from David Wechter, Bruce Kimmel, and Kevin Williamson essentially takes the Body Snatchers central idea – that of a force of invading aliens – and 90210’s it up, generating a teenage-set parable for the young and young-at-heart. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’ll still concede that I just didn’t find any of its performances all that memorable: they were good and occasionally interesting, but the terror and mistrust of the 1956 film never quite survives as anything greater than teen angst to some degree in the re-imagination. It has some good moments, most of which I think are owed to director Robert Rodriguez’s excellent execution of the big scenes.
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“A horror tale set in a High School where the students suspect the teaching staff of being aliens, who are intent on making the students their victims.”
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“A horror tale set in a High School where the students suspect the teaching staff of being aliens, who are intent on making the students their victims.”
The Becomers (2023)
Recently, I was provided streaming access to view 2023’s The Becomers, and that was the experience that served as the catalyst behind my penning this article. While it’s a low budget independent effort, the central premise aligns almost entirely with Body Snatchers, except for the fact that writer/director Zach Clark cleverly upends the paranoia of that original by inevitably saddling the aliens with it, making for some great comic bits in the second half. Mind you: the picture still has some problems, never quite investing much scope in its narrative, but there’s no denying the relationship between it and the vision novelist Finney spawned so many decades before.
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“A body-snatching alien comes to Earth, reconnects with their partner, and tries to find their way in modern America.”
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
“A body-snatching alien comes to Earth, reconnects with their partner, and tries to find their way in modern America.”
Of course, it should go without saying that there are countless other films and television shows out there that tap this same vein in Science Fiction; and my humble suggestions are in no way, shape, or form intended to be considered independent of those. The point is that such tropes when they're used as narrative structures do not go out of style; and their re-invention -- or reconsideration -- from time to time suggest that not only might they be considered good DNA for storytelling but also audiences embrace them because they're the equivalent of visual comfort food. We've been here before. We've seen this somewhere else. It goes down easy ... so long as you don't push it too far from the norm.
Still, there's value in them there hills, and if body snatching makes you feel good then rest assured you're in good company if you try these side dishes.
-- EZ
Still, there's value in them there hills, and if body snatching makes you feel good then rest assured you're in good company if you try these side dishes.
-- EZ
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