10 Best Apocalyptic Horror Movies You Need To See

The end of humanity doesn’t have to be a cacophony of chaos and zombies; it can be a much more covert and insidious affair. This was the case in sci-fi horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

A remake of the 1956 film of the same name (which was based on the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers), Philip Kaufman’s adaptation has become the definitive version of this quiet alien invasion.

The film stars Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams as co-workers who discover that an alien species has infiltrated Earth in the form of seeds which grow into strange pods. These pods generate perfect duplicates of sleeping people in their vicinity, replacing the original when grown. The copy perfectly matches the original’s appearance and shares their memories, however the “pod people” are devoid of normal human emotions.

Unfortunately for our heroes, the invasion is already underway by the time they understand what’s happening. Who’s human and who isn’t becomes impossible, and it’s this overhanging paranoia that drives the film’s uneasy atmosphere.

Presented in a detached, voyeuristic style, the quiet invasion is grounded in a realistic (even mundane) world. Consequently, this makes the moments of surreal horror all the more terrifying when they occur.