Good morning, y’all. It is getting harder and harder for me to come to grips with all of the bad news pouring in from all over. It seems that it is now a standard of the mentally unstable to have multiple weapons with copious amounts of ammunition. I think the fact that I don’t own a firearm speaks well of my emotional well being. I’m sound as a dollar. I’ll let that one sink in a minute.
I have a bizarre way of coping with events that swirl about me that I have absolutely no control over. Normally, I would watch Zombie movies until the mood passes, but since this is date night, I had to tame it down a lot. I chose to do a double feature tonight of the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Since the first version was made in 1956, in black and white, I figured that Mulva would be able to make it through without having to hide her eyes too much. The possibility that Mulva would still be awake for the second show, made in 1978 starring Donald Sutherland, was pretty remote. If she was awake, she would be aware of what was about to happen, and perhaps not be afraid.
As I have stated previously, I saw the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” when it came out and I was seven or eight. I did not sleep for weeks. The movie effected me like no other movie before. While I’d love to be able to say that I understood the underlying themes of McCarthyism and Communism, I didn’t. I was at “gut level” scared to death that all of the people I knew and loved would fall asleep and wake up as soulless drones bent on having me join them in their purgatory. My first thoughts after the movie were in deducing who among my acquaintances had already crossed over. I had a long list of candidates.
The American Film Institute has declared “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre. The Library of Congress has preserved the movie in the national Film Registry. While the original movie was shot in just twenty three days, on a budget of $450,000, it has proven to be such a success that it has been remade at least three more times. The other three remakes, which just turns out are listed in chronological and scare quality are:
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland)
- Body Snatchers (1993 remake starring Gabrielle Anwar)
- The Invasion (2007 starring Nicole Kidman)
Without question, check all of them out. If not for the fact that I saw the original at a very impressionable age, I might give the scariest nod to the 1978 version starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy. If you thought Leonard Nimoy was spooky as a Vulcan, wait until you see him as a pod person. All of the acting and production of this version are first rate.
As luck would have it, Mulva was called away before the 1978 version fired up. It was probably just as well. I don’t think the 1956 version made much of an impression on her. It’s funny how accustomed we’ve become to color and high tech in our movies. It’s like we don’t get drawn into the story unless there’s a 3D experience going on. I guess I’ll see if Mulva’s still awake when I get back over to Number Two. If so, the message came across, even in black and white.
Maybe I’ll bring her one of these pod thingies I found:
