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There’s nothing to be afraid of. The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day was right. It’s painless. It’s good. Come. Sleep.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
It’s been way too long since I’ve seen Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I mean, it’s only been a couple years, but still way too long. This film sits comfortably next to John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Chuck Russell’s The Blob as examples of remakes done right.
All the above-listed remakes are of their time, for good or ill depending on your point of view (mine is for the good), just as the originals they remade were of their time. It’s hard for me to compare Kaufman’s Body Snatchers to Don Siegel’s, just as it’s hard for me to compare Carpenter’s movie with Christian Nyby’s original Thing From Another World. Stylistically, tonally and emotionally they’re very different movies.
Kaufman cast up his remake with some great people, including Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Adams and even nods to the original by giving Don Siegel a cameo and casting Kevin McCarthy in a key role. But it’s the tone, sound design and the makeup effects that really capture me with this retelling. I dare say this is the creepiest version of the story that has ever been told.
Today we’re looking at a great shot from the making of the movie featuring Nimoy, Goldblum and Kaufman. Thanks to Pat Barnett for the pic! Click to enlargen!
If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.
Tomorrow’s pic goes the distance.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page Two
Readers Talkback
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I bet there wasn't a dry panty for a 50 mile radius during the shoot.
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...uh...uh...uh...Aliens...uh...uh...aliens always find...uh...uh...a WAY.
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worth watching? quint mentions the remakes of the blob thing and fly as examples of remakes done right ( and in these cases i agree). is it of a similar vein?
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...an great Flick.
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Even in that stupid ass "The Switch". Goldblum killed it (n a good way) with his... Goldbluminess. Always classic when he's not hamming it up too much.
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May 9, 2012, 4:28 p.m. CST
With Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Golblum in it, how can it NOT be one of the creepiest films ever?
by Vince Ricardo
I mean, you can film those three guys shopping at a supermarket and it'd be creepy. Heck, lest I forget Veronica Cartwright, she can do creepy pretty well herself and how far apart are Brooke Adam's eyes? The dog was almost anti-climatic.
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It's a minor masterpiece. Definitely worth watching.
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May 9, 2012, 4:30 p.m. CST
Great film. The scene with the dog with a human head still freaks the shit out of me!
by Mark Williams
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May 9, 2012, 4:31 p.m. CST
the rest of the cast mustve been contanstly thinking 'holy fuck its Mr Spock!' in their scenes with Nimoy
by CARTMANEZ
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May 9, 2012, 4:33 p.m. CST
Blob is a great remake and also Night of the Living Dead 1990 I'd add to that list.
by wattos new hat
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May 9, 2012, 4:34 p.m. CST
just checked..and sure enough this creepy vicious motherfucker was rated PG!
by CARTMANEZ
P fucking G! LOL i saw this movie for the 1st time as an adult pretty much and it gave me nightmares
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made this movie just perfect. It is probably the greatest remake ever.
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Far above and beyond the original. The Kidman, Craig version is the only movie I have ever walked out on. God that one sucked ass.
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May 9, 2012, 4:41 p.m. CST
Kaufman almost directed the 1st Trek movie - Star Trek: Prometheus
by CARTMANEZ
otherwise known as Planet of the Titans http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Planet_of_the_Titans
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Stolen I say.
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terrible terrible movie. terrible
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It's a nice nod to the original but other than that...
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Ahhhhhrrrrryyyyyyyy!
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I've read both and while the plots are alike(aliens controlling or masquerading as humans in an attempt to take over the planet) there are enough differences to make each a worthy read in their own right. One has the aliens controlling humans, the other aliens duplicating humans. One is set in the present, the other the future. One is set in a small town, the other all over the country. One is an espionage action romp, the other more of a quite mystery. The differences are countless and separate the stories enough that the shared plot is hardly a concern. Anyway they're both classics. Love the last line of The Puppet Masters: Death and destruction!
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May 9, 2012, 5:11 p.m. CST
This movie lost me at Brooke Adams running around naked barking orders in an alien tongue. Just... WHAT?!?
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 5:12 p.m. CST
MUCH MUCH worse ending than the one that was reshot by the W. Brothers for the much maligned "The Invasion."
by ChaunceyGardiner
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cheers will check it out.
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May 9, 2012, 5:22 p.m. CST
Had a discussion the other day with someone who strongly disliked "The Cabin in the Woods." Afterward it had me thinking what I considered a great, if not the greatest horror film...
by ChaunceyGardiner
My answer, eventually, after much inner deliberation? Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" There are few films that strike up against the psyches images and sensations of such primal horror as its exploitation of the human fear of social alienation and the personal isolation/persecution resultant. It, for me, gets at the core of the fear that we have for zombies. As a child I would have intense and vividly coloured dreams in which society violently turned against me, slowly engulfing those around me and infecting them with dissent. I did not watch horror films as a child (an Us vs. Them mindset) - and so I can only believe that this is a fundamental human terror: that one will be separated idealogically, and thus physically through the politics of such a climate, from those with whom one draws their identity and worth. Terrifying. And the original "Body Snatchers" is so that film for me. Perfect. It is one of those examples of a film drawn from a very specific place culturally (fear of Soviet Communism, "the Red Scare"), and through the quality of its craftmanship be elevated to something higher and better: a great film of human fear.
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May 9, 2012, 5:33 p.m. CST
chaunceygardiner, not so much "zombies" but fear of the cultural "other."
by Stereotypical Evil Archer
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Andromeda Strain was rated G had titties in it. <p> TITTIES! <p> <p> I also think Planet of the Apes was rated G before "G" was taken to mean "for children only". The term "General audiences" was a whole different deal back then. <p> Ratings were all over the place back then. Midnight Cowboy got an "X" but Exorcist managed to get away with an "R"?
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This take on Invasion was creepy as all get out and still stands up today. You're right Quint about the sound design playing a sizable role in the creep-out factor. The highly experimental soundtrack was and still is otherworldly, I think I remember on the commentary Kaufman saying that the "woosh woosh" should in the soundtrack is a fetal heartbeat recording. Crazy stuff.
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please please add an edit function to TB. Please?
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His starring role in Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College touched my soul.
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May 9, 2012, 6:09 p.m. CST
Would have been a lot easier if we'd just gone to sleep last night!
by TheyPeedOnYourFuckingRug
One of the best movies of the 70s. One of the best cameos ever from Kevin McCarthy.
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May 9, 2012, 6:10 p.m. CST
Young Spock fresh off the set of Columbo where he played a doctor with the same hairstyle
by UltraTron
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My sister's boyfriend used to have TONS of horror movies recorded on VHS (3 per tape, remember that??). I don't remember what I watched but I do remember falling asleep and waking up just before Donald Sutherland's big moment at the end of the movie and I immediately rewound it and watched the whole thing! Seeing the end first didn't ruin it for me at all (usually it would.) I've loved the movie ever since!
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gotta be somewhere on a short list of the greatest closing scenes ever.
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Body Snatchers, Alien, The Right Stuff.... If she's in a movie I pray something doesn't make her sad or upset.
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May 9, 2012, 7:01 p.m. CST
It is seen historically that "the communist" was often portrayed as soulless and inhuman - his concerns were not our own.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 7:07 p.m. CST
Romero explored this as his original undead trilogy progressed. It is most noteable in "Day of the Dead." In that he used the zombies are a mirror for our own baser, hidden instincts - and thus, it wasn't the zombies that were most dangerous in that fil
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 7:10 p.m. CST
Evil, I am glad you said something, though. I love discussing horror films, their subtexts and motifs - especially of great horror films.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 7:12 p.m. CST
Plus, the college I went to and the program I attended there, they used to love talking about "otherness." Pretty interesting, actually. A good theory to bring up in this context.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 7:14 p.m. CST
(And watching Siegel's original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" now, and being a child of the 80s, I can't imagine people being that terrified of Communists.)
by ChaunceyGardiner
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Guess what motherfucker didn't sleep for like a week?
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The heartbeats, the gasping noises, and the stretching and crackling noises from the pods...It's just so goddamn unearthly and disturbing.
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Fucking love Meg Tilly's "where ya gonna go?" monologue. Awesome shit.
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When Barbara becomes empowered. Barbara is one of the great cinematic crybabies of all time, it's wrong to have her kicking ass. And I'm a Pat Tallman fan.
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Both in the original and the remake, I get that they show the pods and that the replacements grow inside of them, but, I clearly remember the climactic scene when McCarthy is looking at Dana Wynter and she falls asleep and then becomes a 'pod person'. How the fuck did that work? And it was the same for other characters in the film. I never got how the pods fit in. I always thought it would make more sense for the pod like things to grow around the sleeping person and they emerge from the pod being completely different and alien. Did anyone else have this problem with the 'Snatcher' movies? Or am I just dumb and alone?
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May 9, 2012, 8:13 p.m. CST
Also, it's been a while since I've seen the Sutherland remake, but,
by brattyben
I always got the sense that he found a way to fake it at the end, and that his scream, pointing at the woman or whoever who was normal, was more of a way for him to blend in and hide in plain sight. I mean, I guess you could read it both ways, and that he was a pod person at the end, but, I always had that feeling that he was somehow putting on appearances to not get caught. Thoughts?
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May 9, 2012, 8:51 p.m. CST
Ben, I've always felt that his scream of horror is what undoes him and his "disguise." That's how the pod people find out he's human.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 8:52 p.m. CST
Oh wait - ignore that. Apologies. I have just undone my own disguise - I just completely unremembered the whole end of that movie.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 8:53 p.m. CST
I was thinking it was Sutherland that reacted to the "mutant" with a scream/gasp at the end. Glad I reread your post.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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May 9, 2012, 9:18 p.m. CST
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with no Hobbit Set Reports
by where_are_quints_hobbit_set_reports
Truly amazing pic, though. I have to go see this movie again.
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I've alway felt this was a fantastic breakthrough in imaginative surreal and organic make up effects. 1982's The Thing does owe a bit to this. Don't you think? This movie has great sound design as well... by you know who... The soundtrack is a bit cheesy though (the loud symphonic moments) One of the best endings in a horror movie ever!
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This fucking masterpiece is, like Alien, like The Exorcist, et al, still utterly, utterly horrifying after all of these decades. Nimoy is chilling, and the invasion is so naturally methodical as to transcend the usual suspension of disbelief. T.'.
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I know today's geeks gnash their teeth at "pussy" PG-13 horror and action movies, but the 70's Snatchers is proof positive that you don't need buckets of gore (save for the wince-worthy moment where Sutherland bashes in the half-formed face of his Pod Person replica with a garden hoe) to keep the audience in a near-constant state of formless anxiety. The use of unsettling camera angles/lighting, the brilliant sound design by Ben Burtt (coming off the first Star Wars), Denny Zeitlin's mesmerizingly bizarre score...I was about 30 when I saw this for the first time (I know, sue me), and yet I was *still* on edge and uneasy for DAYS afterwards. And that shivery, sucker-punch ending...wow. That alone makes this superior to the already great 1956 version (and Kevin McCarthy's cameo was a gem).
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May 9, 2012, 10:20 p.m. CST
That screeching noise the pod people made terrified my sister....
by skelly
so naturally I would chase her around the house making that noise. We are in our forties and it still creeps her out when I do it. Thanks Kauffman for the sibling ammo.
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May 10, 2012, 2:08 a.m. CST
The Dod Scene. One of the great shock cuts in cinema history.
by Fortunesfool
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Up to that point in '78, I had become accustomed to horror and alien movies all ending the same way, until... (SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THIS..,) At the very end, when Veronica Cartwright approaches Donald Sutherland, and a little smile crosses her face, it seemed that things were going to conclude on at a least a hopeful note, that MAYBE things would be rectified at some point. Then, out of nowhere, Sutherland points the finger and lets out that unholy shriek which would give me nightmates at the tender age of 11 for months to come. Why? Because as an impressionable 11 year old, THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! Bad guys, or aliens, or monsters ALWAYS lost to the good guys at the end. This was counter to everything I'd been exposed to in literature. The good guy was NOT SUPPOSED TO LOSE, LET ALONE BECOME ONE OF THEM! It was really a jolt to my psyche, but it taught me a valuable lesson that sometimes, no matter how hard you fight, how strongly you resist, sometimes in life, things do not turn out for the best. A bitter pill for a sci fi/horror loving youth to swallow, but once my youthful mind was able to absorb this, i grew to love and enjoy this particular iteration of the BODY SNATCHERS films the best. Great film. Period.
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"nightmates" would happen later in my life, ha ha ha...
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May 10, 2012, 7:41 a.m. CST
Quint, you nailed it on the remakes. I agree with all, the rat turd and dog
by Grammaton Cleric Binks
lines and scenes are great. I wonder who would win in a Michael Vick hosted event: Man Dog or Thing Dog? Goldblum was young as about his only role prior to this was "Freak Number One" in Death Wish. The ending was messed up. Some guy came through work with the Donald Sutherland finger pointing shirt. It was great.
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May 10, 2012, 7:46 a.m. CST
the scene with the schoolbuses dropping off kids gets me everytime
by durhay
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May 10, 2012, 8:26 a.m. CST
I bet Donald would do the body snatchers face all the time around the house. Possibly to frighten kiefer as a means of rearing him.
by UltraTron
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Did I read this was rated PG? My my have times changed. Brooke Adam's tittie scene and still PG. Good movie. See it.
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God I miss the 80's!
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May 10, 2012, 10:16 a.m. CST
'2 to Invasion of the Body Snatchers please...1 for me and 1 for my soon to be psychologically damaged for fuckin life 5 year old kid '
by CARTMANEZ
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May 10, 2012, 10:47 a.m. CST
all fathers should make their children watch the 78 IOTBS before going to bed....
by CARTMANEZ
then later on going outside and tapping on their kids bedroom windows - and when the frightened kid gingerly draws back the curtains stands there pointing doing the sutherland bodysnather face y'know - just for laughs
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May 10, 2012, 11:03 a.m. CST
Did what any smart remake (like The Fly and The Thing) would do..adapt the material to reflect the themes of the era.
by openthepodbaydoorshal
Focusing on the self help/me decade was a brilliant idea. Also expanding the threat from small town USA to a large metropolitan city. When Sutherland and company are on the run, and you hear sirens in the background, you can imagine those vehicles are searching for them, magnifying the paranoia.
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is seems to be that the essence of the person is still there - same memories, personality etc - .... but is being controlled by a new force...so in a way you dont 'die' and are probably aware of whats happening in your new body (with the actual event of what happened possibly wiped) but are unable to control what you do...maybe alittle bit like under the influence of drugs/alcohol/facebook etc
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if you not on FB but your friends are, you become like Sutherland and co :)
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May 10, 2012, 11:34 a.m. CST
Umm... Hi there! I'm ahh, Jeff... ahhh GOLDBLUM! YOUMAYREMEMBERMEFROMSUCHFILMSASJURASSICPARKAND...And... um... Independence Day!!!
by ChickenStu
Love me some Jeff.
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By that I mean that everything about it fits neatly into the 70's urban filmmaking aesthetic. The 78 BODY SNATCHERS San Francisco owes a lot to Marty's New York, or the New York from DOG DAY AFTERNOON or SERPICO. Hell, some of the night scenes when they're trying to find a way out of San Francisco could be spliced into TAXI DRIVER and you might not notice.
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May 10, 2012, 12:04 p.m. CST
"Chef Goldblum" - good sport Mr. Goldblum introduces the Schlaaang Super Seat at the beginning of Tim & Eric's movie.
by openthepodbaydoorshal
Of course the on screen graphic misspells his name. Good for a chuckle.
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I saw this on VHS probably 11 or 12 years ago, and that ending freaked me OUT! Because of it, even though I bought the DVD, I could never watch it again. I saw the last 30 minutes of it on cable a while ago, and it's still a chilling ending. Superb film! -NJM
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May 10, 2012, 9:14 p.m. CST
ahh...back when goldblum actually bothered to give a performance
by Jack Desmondi
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May 10, 2012, 11:07 p.m. CST
I love how the '78 Body Snatchers DVD main menu immediately points and shrieks out of the TV screen at you when it first loads up.
by ExcaliburFfolkes
Absolutely scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it.
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No, no, I won't join! Friend request. Friend request. Friend request. No, I won't! Friend request. Friend request. Friend request. Friend request. No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!
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