Body Snatchers

Based on the book by Jack Finney, Body Snatchers follows Gabrielle Anwar’s Marti Malone as she and her family (Terry Kinney’s Steve, Meg Tilly’s Carol, and Reilly Murphy’s Andy) arrive at a U.S. military base and eventually become convinced that something very unusual (and sinister) is going on. Filmmaker Abel Ferrara, working from Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli, and Nicholas St. John’s screenplay, does a fantastic job of instantly drawing the viewer into the hit-and-miss proceedings, as Body Snatchers, which kicks off with a compelling opening-credits sequence, boasts a first act that benefits substantially from Ferrara’s cinematic, compelling visuals and a host of stirring performances – with the promising atmosphere heightened by a genuinely tense early scene set at a middle-of-nowhere gas station. There’s little doubt, then, that the picture does, to a certain extent, lose its grip on the viewer as it progresses into an exceedingly (and excessively) deliberate midsection, with Ferrara’s somewhat chilly approach to the material resulting in an arms-length atmosphere that’s compounded by a relative lack of compelling, sympathetic protagonists. The ongoing inclusion of striking sequences, including a palpably creepy interlude featuring Tilly’s menacing character, goes a long way towards keeping things interesting, however, and it’s impossible to deny the effectiveness of the compelling (albeit undeniably silly) climactic stretch – which ultimately does cement Body Snatchers‘ place as a fine adaptation of an iconic novel.

*** out of ****