Invasion of the Body Snatchers

On the data. Four films, no continuity, and no order. Each is a fresh adaptation of Jack Finney's 1955 novel rather than a sequel to the film before it, so you can watch any one of them alone. The 1978 version does contain a small nod to the 1956 one, with Kevin McCarthy appearing briefly as the same character, but nothing hangs on it. The 1956 film's ending is not the director's. Don Siegel finished on the image of a man shouting at traffic that nobody believes; the studio added a prologue and epilogue in which the authorities do believe him, which reverses the point. Both versions circulate. The 1978 film is the one usually called the best, and its last few seconds are among the most quoted in the genre. The 1993 film is the one people miss. Setting it on a military base, where conformity is already the rule, is a genuinely good idea and Abel Ferrara does something with it. The 2007 film was taken away from its director and largely reshot by the Wachowskis and James McTeigue. It is the one to skip. On the reading: the 1956 film has been claimed as anti-communist and as anti-McCarthy with equal confidence for seventy years. Siegel and the screenwriter both said it was not intended as either. The novel is not political at all.

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