Often ranked among the greatest remakes of all time, Philip Kaufmans Invasion of the Body Snatchers develops a frightening atmosphere that still holds with todays standards. Kaufmans version retells the classic story of an alien invasion in which humans are slowly replaced by emotionless duplicates, but the setting is transplanted from a small American town to San Francisco. The original invasion in the 1956 version is an interesting subtext for the U.S. red scare during the 50s, while the remake has a stronger subtext of distrust towards government. The remake was filmed during the Watergate scandal/post-Vietnam war era and paranoia amongst the American people was once again at its height. Why It Outshines The Original: The remake adds the sense of realism that the original 1956 version lacks. Additionally, the strong performances from Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum carry the film to superiority. Also, this remake is far scarier. The pod people in this version are much more memorable with their pointing and high pitch screaming, while the pod people in the original are drone-like and boring.
