Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 31, 2024

Jack Finney. Who?, many would probably ask, as is overtly mentioned in one of the supplements on this disc. I personally first encountered Finney when I kind of stumbled across his absolutely fantastic novel Time and Again, which had a number of its elements, um, borrowed by Somewhere in Time many years later (we're still awaiting a "real" cinematic adaptation of the book, though there's a rather charming musical adaptation by Skip Kennon). But there are a number of "actual" cinematic adaptations of Finney's writing, including the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 5 Against the House, Assault on a Queen (with a screenplay by none other than Rod Serling), Maxie and (kind of incredibly) Good Neighbor Sam , the last of which may indicate just how febrile Finney's imagination was and how many widely disparate genres he was comfortable with. Good Neighbor Sam is also of interest since it involves an advertising copywriter, something Finney had been in a "former life", something that may have given him a leg up in crafting pithy pieces that often didn't spend a lot of time cutting to the veritable chase. Still, The Body Snatchers (as Finney's original short story was entitled) is probably the author's best remembered work, and there's a great reason for that: as another supplement on this disc mentions, there's always something to be afraid of "out there" in the big, wide, scary world, and the incipient paranoia that suffuses the tale can be directed at everything from Communism (as in the 1956 film) to what might be called New Age Groupthink (in this remarkably facile remake).

There's some interesting background information on both this film and its progenitor in some of the supplements on this disc, and kind of unexpectedly, evidently the first cut of the 1956 film had as many laughs as it did screams, something that was met with disdain by studio executives who insisted the funny bits be excised for the release version. While this remake isn't laugh out funny, and is in fact arguably a good deal more violent and "horror"-ific than the original, it does have a cheeky sense of humor permeating things, as evidenced (among many other examples) by a simultaneously hilarious and frightening cameo by Kevin McCarthy. The basic outlines of the original are hewed to at least relatively well, though there's maybe a bit more of an "origin story", at least allusively, in terms of those ooey gooey pods and where they came from.

Where this film finds its most distinctive differences is in its (again kind of humorous) use of "psychobabble", as a well meaning if probably clueless psychiatrist named David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy) keeps telling concerned folks that their belief that people they know have been replaced by "imposters" is some kind of emotional deficit on their part, divorced from ostensible "reality". There's also a great final twist involving the focal trio of Matthew Bunnell (Donald Sutherland), Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) and Nancy Bellicec (Veronica Cartwright).

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: While this release follows Arrow's standard operating procedure of offering only a 4K disc (no additional 1080 disc), I've included screenshots from Arrow's separate standalone 4K UHD and 1080 presentations here, since the 4K screenshots are downsampled to 1080p/SDR. The color in particular is probably better indicated by the screenshots taken from Arrow's 1080 presentation. Screenshots 1 through 5 are from Arrow's 1080 release, and screenshots 6 through 10 are from their 4K UHD release. Since this release does not contain a 1080 disc, the 2K video score above has intentionally been left blank.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. Kind of interestingly (and unusually), neither the 1080 nor the 4K UHD packages sent to me by Arrow contained an insert booklet, though Arrow's website indicates the first pressing of the 1080 release at least had an insert booklet, so I'm unable to reproduce any verbiage about the transfer contained in that booklet here. Fans will know Kino Lorber released their own 4K disc a while back, and I'm assuming this was probably culled from the same restoration, though I do not have the Kino release and can therefore not offer any authoritative comparison information. This is another great looking 4K UHD presentation from Arrow, one that offers some nice detail levels throughout, especially on some of the squishy looking nascent pods, and this 4K UHD version aids, at least marginally, in helping to elucidate some of the shadow detail that increasingly comes into play in the film's latter half, much of which takes place in some dimly lit environments. Dolby Vision / HDR provides not just upticks in shadow detail (which admittedly can be marginal, though still observable) but also in its rendering of highlights, which add some noticeable energy to an already nicely vivid palette in Arrow's 1080 version. The opening credits sequence was optically printed and grain is kind of splotchy and yellowish, but after that sequence ends, things start resolving more tightly, and while grain can be heavy in the darker moments in particular, it looks beautifully organic and problem free.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers features either DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 or DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options, and while the stereo track is perfectly listenable, I definitely recommend going with the surround track if your setup allows for it. As is discussed in the some of the supplements, the sound design of this film is kind of remarkable, helping to subliminally establish an off kilter, askew world where nothing is quite "right". The surround track opens up not just the at times appropriately "alien" sound effects, but a wealth of ambient environmental effects in both urban environments and even some of the cloistered interior spaces. Denny Zeitlin's great score is also well presented and more spacious sounding in the surround track. Dialogue and the occasional high frequency pod person scream are rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Commentary


• Discussing the Pod (HD; 51:53) is an enjoyable conversation between Kim Newman, Norman J. Warren and Ben Wheatley, who offer what might be termed a multi-generational response to the film.


• Dissecting the Pod (HD; 17:33) is an interview with Philip Kaufman biographer Annette Insdorf.


• Writing the Pod (HD; 11:15) is an interview with Jack Finney biographer Jack Seabrook. It's perhaps salient to note, considering the opening of my review, above, that this begins with a text card alerting viewers that the film is based on a story by Finney.


• Re-Visitors from Outer Space (HD; 16:14) is an archival making of piece with some fun interviews.


• The Man Behind the Scream (HD; 12:45) features sound designer Ben Burrt, who describes how he achieved some of the film's startling effects.


• The Invasion Will Be Televised (HD; 5:24) is an interview with cinematographer Michael Chapman.


• Practical Magic: The Special Effects Pod (HD; 4:38) offers a look at the opening credits sequence. There's some more kind of funny information on this sequence in Kaufman's commentary track.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:12)

The keepcase features a reversible sleeve.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'll chip in to the "conversation" moderated by Kim Newman mentioned above by offering a couple of admittedly irrelevant but tangentially related anecdotes. In the unintended humor department, I was actually living in San Francisco when I saw the film for the first time, residing in a frankly pretty scuzzy boarding hotel on Market Street as I did some research for a planned Masters thesis kind of comically (considering this film's subtext) related to an occult group which had a presence in the city. The opening zoom into San Francisco briefly shows Market Street from above, more or less exactly where the boarding hotel was, and I've joked for years that that explained a lot about the other residents of the place. Also in the teaching an old dog new tricks department, the back cover of this release states most remakes are "on a hiding to nothing", which is evidently a British idiom I've never heard before, despite the fact that my Dad was born in England and I probably have more relatives in the UK than in the United States. Those personal comments aside, this remake is definitely not "on a hiding to nothing", and has a decidedly different tone than the original, but one which is just as viscerally disturbing. Arrow offers a 4K UHD presentation with excellent technical merits and some fun and enjoyable supplements. Highly recommended.