| | | The original nightmare that threatened the world
Features: DVD
Something evil has taken possession of the small town of Santa Mira, California. Hysterical people accuse their loved ones of being emotionless impostors; of not being themselves. At first, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) tries to convince them they're wrong...but they're not. Plant-like extraterrestrials have invaded Earth, replicating the villagers in giant seed "pods" and taking possession of their souls while they sleep. Soon the entire town is overwhelmed by the inhuman horror, but it won't stop there. In a terrifying race for his life Dr. Bennell escapes to warn the world of the deadly invasion of the pod people! Remade in both 1978 and 1997, this chilling combination of extraterrestrial terror and anti-conformity paranoia is considered one of the great cult classics of the genre.
"Classic, influential and still very scary..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
Don Siegel's cult masterpiece, interpreted as an allegory of both McCarthyism and Communism, is undoubtedly one of the screen's most disturbing evocations of paranoia. It stars Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles Binnell, a physician whose traumatized arrival in the emergency room of a San Francisco hospital leads the staff to believe he's lost his mind. In a series of flashbacks, he unwinds a bizarre account of his last few days. After his return from a trip to rural Santa Mira, his nurse, Sally (Jean Willes), explains that his office has been flooded with patients who have made appointments yet never appeared. Former girlfriend Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) tells him that she's unable to rid herself of the belief that the man claiming to be her uncle is an impostor. A hysterical young boy refuses to return home, claiming that his mother is not his mother. Miles's concern over this pattern of incidents, temporarily allayed by some jargon from the town psychiatrist, is newly aroused when he gets a phone call from friend Jack Belicec (King Donovan), who begs him to come over and take a look at the strange mannequinlike figure that's suddenly appeared on his pool table. This exceptionally well written and directed fable, the ultimate comment on the subtly coercive conformity of the 1950s, may be Siegel's best film, and it is undoubtedly one of the most exciting science fiction films ever made.
Plot Summary
This classic film, based on the serialized story in Collier's magazine by Jack Finney, is set in idyllic small-town America, where a strange, alien form of plant life sprouts pods that destroy the human personality while taking over the body. And only one man can stop them...if they don't stop him first.
| Features | Audio: English, Spanish, Italian Dolby Digital Mono | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | English Subtitles | | French Subtitles | | Spanish Subtitles | | Spanish Track | | English Track | | Italian Track | | Widescreen Version | | Standard Format | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Original Theatrical Release Version | | Digitally Re-Mastered From Original Film Negative | | Special Interview With Kevin McCarthy |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Republic |
| Release Date: 8/16/2005 |
| Running Time: 80 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1956 | | Catalog ID: 52018 | | UPC: 00017153201826 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, Italian Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.35:1/4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...Old-fashioned innocents unaware of infinite possibility....[McCarthy is] splendid..." -- Rating: B 10/16/1998 pp.91-2Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "Don Siegel's taut, bleak, noir-flavoured picture is arguably the science fiction B-movie of the 1950s..." 11/01/2007 p.138-139 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Back in 1956, in crisp black-and-white, at the height of Cold War-fed paranoia, the story was at its most effective." 11/01/2007 p.201 Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "A concise but ambiguous masterpiece of paranoia, its sharp, haunting brilliance grows clearer with the appearance of each subsequent replicant." 12/01/2007 p.137 The Motion Picture Guide 8 of 10
...a superbly crafted film by innovative director Siegel and...one of the great cult classics of the genre... It's a quick-paced chiller that captivates the viewer with every tension-filled scene.
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