Before becoming critics’ darling with intense, unpleasant and sometimes controversial art dramas, Abel Ferrara used to direct exploitation films. He, in a way, returned to genre territory with his 1993 science fiction film Body Snatchers, third screen adaptation of The Body Snatchers, classic novel by Jack Finney.
The protagonist and narrator, played by Gabrielle Anwar, is Marti Malone, 17-year old daughter of Steve Malone, scientist who works for Environmental Protection Agency. Plot begins when she follows her father, stepmother Carol (played by Meg Tilly) and 5-year old brother Andy (played by Reilly Murphy) to US military base where they would have to spend summer holidays while Steve conducts various tests in order to determine toxicity of various chemicals at the site. Before arriving at the nearby gas station she has brief but unpleasant encounter with panicky soldier who warns that someone or something will get her while she sleeps. At the actual base things look oppressive but not that unusual and Marti befriends Jen (played by Christine Elise), rebellious teen daughter of General Platt (played by R. Lee Ermey), base commander. Steve is, however, approached by Major Matthew Collins (played by Forest Whitaker), base’s physician who inquires whether toxic chemicals might induce mass paranoia and fear of sleeping. Young Andy notices something very wrong in daycare centre, where all the children paint exactly the same picture while anyone wants him to sleep. Marti, who has started dating young helicopter pilot Tim Young (played by Billy Wirth) has the mystery revealed when pods, conveniently brought to Malones’ home by base personnel, begin to take over family members and create their perfect copies that would assume their identities and discard the originals. With Carol already taken over by impostor , Marti survives the ordeal by accident, saves her father and Andy and tries to seek shelter, realising that the entire base was taken over by “pod people” who look like their former human victims but actually function as collective organism that had arrived from outer space.
The first adaptation of Finney’s novel, directed by Don Siegel in 1956, was set in small Californian town and the second, directed in 1978 by Philip Kaufman, was set in San Francisco. The third one was set on the other side of USA and probably made most sense from the plot perspective. Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli and Nicholas St. John wisely concluded that pod people’s takeover of Earth would be least noticeable and most effective if started in military base, place full of men and women already drilled into disciplined, robot-like, emotionless members of military collective. Director Abel Ferrara recognised potentials for that and Body Snatchers works best in the first half, when Ferrara uses good cinematography by Bojan Bazelli to create atmosphere of unease and makes audience think whether certain character is still human or not. Another idea, to have teen girl as the protagonist, looked a little bit original, but it was compromised by poorly conceived idea of protagonist’s family already being dysfunctional, with rebellious Marti considering her stepmother an alien even before actually meeting pod people. Ferrara, on the other hand, isn’t that successful when it comes to resolving the plot and in the second half it all predictable showdown between protagonist and zombie horde. Impression isn’t particularly improved with the massive use of pyrotechnics and somewhat ambiguous ending. The cast is, on the other hand, decent. Gabrielle Anwar handles her role, which even required some nudity, well, same as Billy Wirth who is trying to make his character something more than pretty face. Meg Tilly, on the other hand, looks like a poor copy of Broke Adams from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Veteran character actors like Whitaker, Ermey or Kinney are, on the other hand, solid in their roles. But the best thing Ferrara does with the film is keeping it short, thus not allowing its flaws to become too apparent for the audience. Some of those problems could be attributed to Ferrara feuding with Warner Bros. which led to Body Snatchers getting poor cinema distribution by the studio and, consequently, even less impressive box office results. In 2007 fourth adaptation of Finney’s novel was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel under title The Invasion.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
