SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM (8)
By:
October 28, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite horror movies. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) | d. PHILIP KAUFMAN | 1978
“They’re coming!” shrieks a seemingly crazy man to Matthew (Donald Sutherland) and Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) as they drive through San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Who’s coming? Aliens that drift, in quiescent spore form, from one planet to another, seeking hosts of whose bodies they can grow perfect imitations. These simulacra will retain their hosts’ memories, abilities, even their occupations — but with one crucial difference. “You’ll be born again into an untroubled world,” intones the body-snatched self-help guru David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). “Free of anxiety, fear, hate”… and love too.
Don Siegel’s 1956 adaptation of Jack Finney’s novel was widely understood to be a parable about Eisenhower-era America’s bland conformity and McCarthyite proto-fascism. It’s tempting to read the 1978 version as a political fable, too — especially when Matthew wonders whether Elizabeth’s strangely altered fiancé may have simply become a Republican. But Kaufman’s adaptation is more of a Baudelairean parable, one urging us to beware of seemingly progressive ideologies that valorize reason and utility over against all those recalcitrant qualities that may retard progress… but make life worth living. The late Donald Sutherland — eccentric, free-spirited even when portraying a public health official — is perfectly cast; and his character’s Vonnegut-esque mustache and curly perm are a nice touch too.
San Francisco itself is an eccentric, free-spirited character here. Not just the characters’ desperate journey away from Matthew’s wok-equipped Telegraph Hill pad, but the city’s population is telling: Harry the banjoist and his dog (whose fusion terrified me as an adolescent), Jeff Goldblum as a poet who runs a mud-bath joint with his wife Nancy (the terrific Veronica Cartwright), Robert Duvall as a priest loitering in Alamo Square Park. San Francisco once upon a time offered newcomers the opportunity for rebirth — even a strip-club barker promises Matthew that he can “feel like a new man!” Like today’s tech bros who’ve remade the city in their own image, however, what the aliens offer is a disruptive final solution — no more yearning for rebirth, your problems efficiently solved. The not-so-crazy fellow, played by Kevin McCarthy (the lead in the 1956 movie), can scream all he likes… nobody listens to San Francisco’s street people.
Cinematographer Michael Chapman represents the change in San Francisco by showing us the city’s gorgeously diverse population literally marching in lockstep. Eerily uplit and lurking in the shadows, carrying Elizabeth’s limp body from place to place, still doing his own thing, Matthew is depicted as the movie’s monster… one who must be eradicated from this brave new world.
SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on THE SHINING | Dean Haspiel on TOURIST TRAP | Fran Pado on M3GAN | Erin M. Routson on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT | Adam McGovern on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER | Michele Carlo on THE EXORCIST | Tony Pacitti on JAWS | Josh Glenn on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) | Kathy Biehl on HALLOWEEN | Annie Nocenti on ROSEMARY’S BABY | Carolyn Campbell on WAIT UNTIL DARK | Marc Weidenbaum on DAWN OF THE DEAD | Amy Keyishian on SHAUN OF THE DEAD | Gabriela Pedranti on [•REC] | Mariane Cara on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY | Trav SD on FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY | Colin Campbell on EVIL DEAD (2013) | Lynn Peril on NIGHT GALLERY | Heather Quinlan on THE CHANGELING | Kenny Simek on REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on IT (1990) | James Scott Maloy on CONTAGION | Nick Rumaczyk on THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF | Max Alvarez on THE INNOCENTS | Michael Campochiaro on BLACK CHRISTMAS.
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