Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a unique slice of 50’s entertainment. It’s a classic horror movie concerning the invasion of earth by enigmatic alien pods that can take the form of humans. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and thought it was a wonderfully eerie yet cheesy at the same time. There have been several interpretations of the movie over the years but the first has got to be my favorite. The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a sci-fi horror flick that seems harmless enough but seems to draw the overblown opinion that it is an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Several articles depict it thus, but I feel like it's just a classic thriller especially when compared to the world of today.
McCarthyism was widespread throughout the 50’s which was the time period that Invasion of the Body Snatchers was produced. McCarthyism is defined as an intense mass-hysteria involving communist suspicion and the subsequent blacklisting of anyone involved with communism. This is the proclaimed theme of Invasion of the Body Snatchers according to many critics. The movies’ critics claim to have strong evidence supporting their hypotheses but I believe otherwise. “In Body Snatchers, the pod people, who, like McCarthy and the other red-baiters, look like typical, fine upstanding Americans, search out rebels like Miles who refuse to conform to what has been newly defined as the "American Way"—just as McCarthy and HUAC destroyed the lives of those who refused to knuckle under to their directives. The mob hysteria, the sense of paranoia, the fascist police, the witch hunt atmosphere of the picture certainly mirrors the ills of McCarthy’s America.”(Whitehead) This Observation by John W. Whitehead of Gadfly Online seems to paint the perfect picture of McCarthyism but to truly understand you need a general understanding of psychiatric thrillers like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The film preys on the viewer’s minds and instills a feeling of paranoia, but this is a classic tactic of movie makers to create an audience pleasing atmosphere. Paranoia is even used in the films of today even if it doesn’t have such a profound impact.
Another concept to consider was the addition of an epilogue and prologue to the original movie. The prologue begins the film at the “end” so to speak painting you a picture of Dr. McCarthy (the main protagonist) in a hospital being accused of insanity over his insane tales then the movie really begins. The ending of the movie is also slightly altered. The original film ended with a panic stricken Dr. McCarthy screaming, “Look, you fools. You're in danger. Can't you see? They're after you. They're after all of us. Our wives, our children, everyone. They're here already. YOU'RE NEXT!”(Dirks) Thanks to the epilogue we are brought back to the hospital to find a vindicated Dr. McCarthy thanks to the slip-up of one of the pod people of the movie. The pod-person was found in a truck wreck covered in strange seed pods thus proving Dr. McCarthy right and the proper authorities are notified and the film ends on a happy note with the world being saved. Some people may say that this looks like a classic display of communism by stepping on the freedoms of the director, but to me it just seems like a good way of protecting the minds of America in a more innocent time period.
Horror movies today are all about the shock value and amount of gore they can fit into one to two hours of carnage. Paranoia is still a useful tool in the films of today but it isn’t the tool it used to be. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was created in a time where gore was not accepted and shock value was the use of a curse word or seeing a UFO silhouetted against the backdrop of the dusky sky. If you can watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers and apply it to the world of today you receive a simple, low-budget, b-movie horror flick that most people would find quite gratifying. America today may have a similar enemy today as it had in the 50’s i.e. terrorism, but today’s movie goers young and old are desensitized or comfortably numb to these concepts. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is just a classic example of early horror made purely for enjoyment.





Works Cited

Dirks, Tom. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” 2007. 12 Oct. 2007.

Whitehead, John W. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers A Tale For Our Times.” Gadfly Online. 2007. Gadfly Productions. 12 Oct. 2007.