Every Version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Ranked

Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers had one of the most adaptable plots in the history of ’50s sci-fi novels. It’s set in a small town and the villains aren’t gooey aliens with tentacles and sharp teeth but rather just, well, people. Or rather replications of people. You could keep the budget low, focus on character, and up the paranoia in a way that’s aided by the fact that the monsters aren’t difficult to produce. After all, if what’s after you looks like you, you don’t know what to run from. Even still, of the four adaptations that have been released since that 1954 novel’s publication, some are certainly better than others.

The success rate for adaptations of The Body Snatchers is remarkably strong. One might assume that it’s the type of story that could only be told once but, in fact, it’s a narrative that has held up when different directors of different eras of filmmaking have used the novel’s template to comment on society. Which is the best? Let’s find out.

4) The Invasion

The Invasion is as devoid of personality as a pod person. Well, an infected person, in this case. That’s really the only way Oliver Hirschbiegel’s movie tries to flip the script on the story: instead of it being an alien invasion, it’s all one big sickness caused by a space fungus.

And, while it’s admirable The Invasion tried to shake things up a bit, it also strips the narrative of every ounce of tension. Every other Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie did a great job of selling just how much danger the protagonists were in, and how helpless they gradually came to feel. Here, Nicole Kidman’s protagonist is a doctor. As soon as we learn it’s a sickness with the potential to be cured, we get the gist that she’s going to cure it. By movie’s end that’s exactly what happens, so everything that just occurred throughout 90 or so minutes ends up feeling entirely irrelevant. That’s what could also be said of this film as a whole.

3) Body Snatchers

The difference in quality between The Invasion and Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers is substantial, but there’s a similar jump in quality between this one and the two best adaptations. In short, Body Snatchers is aided greatly by its shift in location, but it does occasionally feel burdened by uninteresting characters.

The notion of taking a story where the villains are “people” who don’t show emotion and transferring it from a small town to an army base was a novel one, and it works. However, it doesn’t help that the family we follow, the Malones, are pretty bland, too. Even still, this is a film with hair-raising tension, an almost hazy visual aura, and a few scenes that display its true lack of predictability.

2) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, like most sci-fi horror movies of the era, charming in its convincing construction of a small-town vibe. It also does a marvelous job of taking that Andy Griffith Show-esque vibe and taking it down to the studs.

So many things work about the original film, from Joe Dante favorite Kevin McCarthy’s note-perfect performance (all due respect to Donald Sutherland, but it’s McCarthy who delivers the best work in the lead role) to the strength of the screenplay. While it’s in the number two position here, the 1956 film is nonetheless a masterpiece of its genre (or, rather, genres).

Stream Invasion of the Body Snatchers on MGM+.

1) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the scariest films of the ’70s and to this day remains one of the very best remakes of all time. It essentially follows the path followed by the original but is bolstered by an even more palpably creepy atmosphere and the addition of the point and scream equipped by the pod people that was then utilized once more in Body Snatchers.

Speaking of the pod people’s point and scream, it’s hard to imagine a horror film with a more jarring ending than this one. It’s a brilliant scene and one that serves to confirm that the lack of safety the audience has felt throughout the entirety of the runtime was fully warranted.

Stream Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) on HBO Max.

Which is your favorite Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Let us know in the comments.