‘At first glance, everything looked the same… It
wasn’t. Something evil had taken possession of the town.’
It’s starts with Kevin McCarthy’s character shouting at
police officers, telling them he’s not mad and that they are here… they
are talking over and they must be stopped and it continues 65 years later in a
post-Trump, post-Brexit world in which myths have been injected into our minds
by forces unknown. In the mid fifties this could have been communism and it
could have been fascism – both sides took offence at Don Siegel’s film – but the
ability and desire to wield fear to manipulate opinion hasn’t changed only the
tools with which to do so.
You can take this film as face value and perhaps that’s
best, an invasion of alien beings who take over human bodies and minds and are
concerned only with being… no anger, irony, love or other emotional extremes.
As is said in the documentary accompanying this film, these are the most benign
of invaders and yet… no one wants to lose their ability to feel and to reach
those extreme states. Maybe this is the only way to truly value our freedoms;
to be close to losing them.
 |
| Dana Wynter and Kevin McCarthy |
Presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, the film is based on Jack Finney’s three-part serial, The
Body Snatchers which first appeared in Collier’s magazine in 1954, and
which he always claimed held no hidden meanings being just a good story based
on common science fiction tropes of the time. If anything, it may have been a
reaction to cultural and technological changes with the writer exhibiting a
nostalgia for a community-spirited smalltown America that seemed to be slipping
away.
In one of the featurettes accompanying this sparkling presentation,
Don Seigel’s former assistant said he got different things from the film at different
stages of his life and with different political contexts… I think it’s the film’s
ambiguity and passion which enables this longevity, its specificity is about
the fear of loss of self and not necessarily political at all. That’s where the
real horror is.
The pace of Invaders is also impressively relentless and
there’s a very satisfying narrative arc that pulls no punches and is heavy with
the realities of a battle for existence against a relentless enemy. Enjoy
yourself it’s later than you think is fine but this is the moment between
that realisation and midnight.
 |
| There's something wrong with Uncle Ira... |
We kick off with a desperate Doctor Miles Bennell (Kevin
McCarthy) being taken into a psychiatric ward rambling about “them” being here
and smashing the fourth wall with feverish, frightened intensity. He gradually
calms down enough to explain that he’s a doctor too and we switch to flashback
and the seemingly tranquil California town of Santa Mira, the setting of Invasion…
and, for sure, if it could happen here, it could happen anywhere.
Bennell has been away on a trip and on his return, he has
been seeing patients exhibiting “Capgras delusion” a belief that their friends
and relatives have somehow been replaced with identical-looking impostors but everyone
who complains is soon fine. He finds that his old fiancé, Becky Driscoll (the
divine Dana Wynter) has returned following her divorce and a stay with
relatives in England and there’s definitely still a spark between them.
The two visit Becky's cousin Wilma (Virginia Christine) who’s
convinced that her father, Ira, is not the same man he was… there’s much
detailed conversation about the change in him and how he’s still Ira but has
lost his emotional connection with the World. At this stage, it all sounds
fantastical and we see Ira, we know there’s a change but, even pre-warned and informed,
it’s hard to pin it down.
 |
| Meeting Teddy and Jack |
Bennett’s colleague, psychiatrist Dr Dan Kauffman (Larry
Gates) cheerfully puts it all down to some form of mass hysteria and, as with
all good mysteries, the audience, is lulled into a false sense of comfort. But
the film doesn’t linger long and starts to accelerate towards the unlikeliest
of explanations.
Bennett and Becky go to see his friends, Jack Belicec (King
Donovan) and his wife Theodora "Teddy" (the wonderful Carolyn Jones,
later Morticia, wife to Gomez Addams…) for a drink. What could be more normal
and comfortingly routine and yet they find a strange mannequin which looks like
an unfinished version of Jack growing out of a pod in his greenhouse. Truly,
something is rotten in the state of California. Bennett calls Kauffman to see
for himself but the body has disappeared…
Seigel doesn’t linger on the disappearing evidence though
and soon the four find exact replicas growing in the Belicec’s greenhouse… and
it’s not long before they realise that many of their most trusted friends and
local officials have already been replaced by these strange doppelgangers and their
personalities gone for good.
Running out of places to turn to Bennell and Becky hide
away in his office overnight and watch the town gather in the morning to send
off more and more of the pods to neighbouring towns. The arrival of Kauffman
and a transformed Jack makes their situation look hopeless and as the Professor
calmly explains what is happening – an alien invasion, the pods taking over and
freeing the humans from daily stresses but also freewill – the horrific reality
becomes clear.
The two make a break for it and the sight of them being
chased by the entire town is even more dispiriting than the biggest of Twitter
pile-ons… is there anyway they can escape? All they have to do is stay clear
and awake… to prevent their consciousness being pushed out.
Invasion is still an agitating ride especially in
crystal clear high definition and unsettles you for all kinds of reasons… this
play on human insecurity is the most “noir” of all the fifties sci-fi classics
and betrayal by your community and society is right up there with loss of self
as the ultimate in nightmarish narratives.
 |
| Hertford, June 2016. |
There’s a pod-full of extras including commentary from filmmaker
and critic Jim Hemphill as well as the 50th anniversary commentary
with stars Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, and Gremlins director Joe Dante
(2006). There’s a number of featurettes on the film along with archive shorts
on communism and ground-breaking botanical cinematography in Magic Myxies
(1931, 11 mins) and Battle of the Plants (1926, 11 mins)
An illustrated booklet is included in the first pressing,
with new writing on the film by Dr Deborah Allison, an archival feature by J
Hoberman from Sight and Sound, May 1994, a biography of Don Siegel by
Charlie Bligh and notes on the special features.
Another impeccable release from the BFI and you can order it now from their Shop – if they haven’t already left one growing in your
greenhouse - and remember…
"They're here already! You're next! You're
next!"
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