Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Forget what the fake ass gang of nostalgia happy pseudo intellectuals tell ya , the 1978 version is all you need to know about . Sure , the original's great and all that and from what I understand the 90's remake aint too shabby either but for my money alone it's all about Donald Sutherland chopping up an eggplant ( no , not the criminal kind ) version of himself with a lute rake up on the back porch .

Invasion transcends the Sci-Fi genre to come smashing through the gates equipped with more scares than most Horror films do . Also , while most films that have an apocalyptic theme either seem to playfully hint at it with no intention of putting out or arrive too late leaving you wondering exactly how did it all go down . Invasion doesn't fuck around in that regard . From the moment the seeds are literally planted to well after their bloom you're treated to a front row seat viewing of the shit hitting the fan and spraying back in everybody's faces .

Don't get it fucked up though , Invasion doesn't spoon feed the audience by any means as there are a few plot twists and mysteries scattered throughout that are sure to fuck your brain up the ass once they are revealed . The suspense level is jacked to the max as you try and differentiate the metaphorical vegetables from the real ones .

The casting is impeccable . Sutherland alongside Leonard Nimoy , Brooke Adams , Veronica Cartright , Hal Linden as well as a young Jeff Goldblum all dish out kick ass and supremely believable performances as both fugitives on the run , fraught with paranoia and exhaustion and the emotionless , systematic vegetable overlords they eventually become .

While not known for its " intense depictions of gore laden butchery " there are definitely some pretty fucked up scenes that have a tendency to latch onto your brain and pop up in your thoughts later on like an LSD flashback . The transformation sequence ranks among one the best and because the lions share of special effects work in those days were all done by hand the scene comes across as that much more compelling and fantastic not to mention highly repulsive .

Invasion carries with it that dusty yet colossal feeling that films from the 70's often do . Instead of hunting down the latest piece of shit movie to have been puked fourth in the last decade or so claiming to go back to the old days simply do yourself a favor and fucking rent/buy an actual movie from that time . Believe me , Invasion is as good a place to start as any .

Until or unless you've seen this film and others from throughout the 70's/early 80's you just do not know what it is to witness a film atop the apex . Make no mistake . The 70's were the golden age of Horror films . Not because they were incessantly being shat out or because the whole planet was tuned in to every grade A , B and Z movie that crept out from the swamps but because it was an era of perfection , plain and simple . Nowadays there lies a gaping hole from out of which crawls stupid cliches of the most embarrassing order . Personally I do not give a fuck if a movie is remade or not but have a fucking care . Today the whole point in remaking something is to simply bleed dry a working formula . Hey , Halloween is a classic and made lots of money , let's halfassedly duplicate that and get what we can while the goings good . Blah . If you want an example of how a remake is SUPPOSED to be done then look no further than Invasion of the Body Snatchers .