A peek at 'Invasion' precursors

Hollywood has never been known for its originality. But in an age when recycling is lauded, maybe the public will warm up to the latest Nicole Kidman vehicle, "The Invasion." If the story of a mother uncovering a sinister, otherworldly plot to replace human beings with emotionless clones seems familiar, that's because the story has been told many times before (although typically with a male protagonist). It's an idea that has captured the American imagination since the mid-1950s, when novelist Jack Finney wrote "The Body Snatchers."

The film adaptations are tough to categorize, especially the first one in 1956, a B-movie that has become a classic. Part horror, part sci-fi, it's quite the psychological thriller. Subsequent versions up the special-effects ante and tweak the plot details, but the basic formula remains the same. Regardless of the decade (remakes have surfaced every 15 to 20 years), there's a potent underlying premise that remains fascinating.

"People have a fantasy to be free of daily cares, but the writers show us what a horror that would be," observes Robert Carringer, retired professor of English and cinema studies at the University of Illinois' Urbana campus, where he taught the '56 version in many classes. "What makes our personalities but daily cares and daily interactions with others? This is the horror in 'Body Snatchers': That something might invade your personality and reduce it to nothingness."

"The theme of mandated conformity interests many people, and the time sort of always seems right in this country," says actor (and Steppenwolf co-founder) Terry Kinney, who starred in the 1993 remake. "Fascinating. Whether it's a Red Scare or a takeover by our military leadership, it's ripe paranoid fantasy."

To prepare for this latest iteration, here's an overview if the three earlier models. (Warning: Spoilers below!)



"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)

ARTISTIC TEAM: Director Don Siegel and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring

CHARACTERS AND BASIC PLOT: In small-town Southern California, Miles Bennell (actor Kevin McCarthy), a doctor trying to court beautiful Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), receives an urgent call from his friend Jack, who has discovered a bizarre body in his home. Soon Jack's wife notices that the body has begun to take on Jack's features as he sleeps, and the horrified foursome eventually realize Earth is being slowly taken over by clones grown from alien pods.

UNDERLYING THEME: The genius of the original film is the malleability of its subtext. Conservatives interpreted it as a parable about the encroaching Communist menace, while liberals saw a cautionary tale against McCarthy-era conformity. In an interview conducted many years later (preserved on DVD), actor Kevin McCarthy said, "I never felt it had any political significance."

NOTABLE CAMEO: Then-unknown writer-director Sam Peckinpah plays a bit role as a gas man-turned-pod person.

CREEPIEST SPECIAL EFFECT: Shot on a shoestring budget; there aren't many to choose from. Still, the greenhouse scene when the quartet discovers four bubbling, bursting-open pods provides the best special effects visuals.

SCARIEST PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT: Carringer: "When Becky wakes up a pod, a revelation that occurs just as Miles kisses her."



"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978)

ARTISTIC TEAM: Director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter W.D. Richter

CHARACTERS AND BASIC PLOT: Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), a San Francisco health inspector, learns something's amiss from co-worker Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams). The discovery of Jack's (Jeff Goldblum) would-be double confirms that something dire is happening across the entire city. Jack's wife Nancy, (Veronica Cartwright), eventually provides them with a key realization: The pod people can be fooled if you never display any emotion. Leonard Nimoy also stars.

UNDERLYING THEME: The years following the Vietnam War and Watergate are "a downer time, an era of pessimism and lost innocence," Carringer says. "Hollywood reflects that mood. The pods are being manufactured in a huge factory-sized structure. It's not just laying one individual pod in someone's bedroom; it's an enormous enterprise -- cultural corruption on a massive scale."

NOTABLE CAMEO: In a smart wink to the original, Kevin McCarthy again appears running through traffic, trying to warn the populace: "You're next!"

CREEPIEST SPECIAL EFFECT: Although it looks cheesy by today's standards, Kinney recalls "the scene of a dog with the face of a human being -- that was fairly disturbing."

SCARIEST PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT Carringer cites the twist ending, when the hero Sutherland, suddenly revealed as a pod, betrays his old friend Nancy.



"Body Snatchers" (1993)

ARTISTIC TEAM: Director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter W.D. Richter

CHARACTERS AND BASIC PLOT: The cast shifts significantly as kids enter the fray, while the setting moves to an isolated U.S. military base, which EPA inspector Steve Malone (Kinney) must inspect. He brings his family: his teenage daughter, his second wife and her younger son. (The "you're not my mother" fight between teen and stepmom cleverly foreshadows the impending clone replacement.) Worries about a toxic spill give way to something far worse: the bizarre alien-clone invasion.

UNDERLYING THEME: "Our version, which took place on a military base, was a paranoid imagining of our own military turning us into benign, contented shells of our former selves," Kinney says. "Some thought it was also an AIDS-era fantasy -- how do we know who is sick? -- but we were never going for that, to the best of my knowledge."

NOTABLE CAMEO: Not exactly a cameo, but Forest Whitaker (above) plays a sleep-deprived military man who warns the protagonists.

CREEPIEST SPECIAL EFFECT: When Kinney (as pod Steve) is shot, "my body just sucks into itself," he says. "They put a dummy of me on the ground and put a power vacuum on the back. It just sucked all the air out of it. Made me a little queasy."

SCARIEST PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT: Kinney: "When Meg Tilly, holding our small boy and running, points at me and emits a pretty terrifying scream. That stayed with me, but the film was full of images to haunt sleep for quite a while."

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ctc-arts@tribune.com

Related topic galleries: Nicole Kidman, Donald Sutherland, Meg Tilly, Jeff Goldblum, Philip Kaufman, Sam Peckinpah, Hollywood (Los Angeles, California)