If anybody thinks the trend for running well-known stories into the ground is a modern phenomenon, evidence to the contrary doesn’t come much clearer than Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers.
It only took a year following the tale’s publication for the live-action adaptation to arrive, with 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers regarded as one of the genre’s first undisputed classics. Two decades later, a star-studded remake arrived that also went on to gain classic status, both as one of the finest remakes ever made, and a benchmark for intergalactic horror.
Not to be deterred by back-to-back titans of scary cinema, the incendiary Abel Ferrara went ahead with his own version in 1993, stripping the title back to Body Snatchers. On the commercial front, third time was not the charm after it tanked with aplomb at the box office, while even strong notices from critics couldn’t stop it from turning out as the worst-reviewed of the three, even if matching its illustrious predecessors was a tall order from the start.
However, a band of intrepid Redditors have mobilized to try and drum up some newfound support for Ferrara’s spin on the invincibly iconic tale of bodies being snatched, and it’s certainly winning out when it comes to the sheer creepiness of it all being appraised. In the grand scheme of things, the consensus is pointing in the direction of the “it’s good, but not as good as the others” camp, which is faint praise Ferrara no doubt knew he’d have to live with.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers V2.0, or Body Snatchers? The choice is yours as to which one is superior, but all three are fantastic in their own way.
Published: Nov 13, 2022 12:58 pm