“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is a not-so-subtle allegory for the dangers of conformity, capitalizing on the post-war fear of communism OR McCarthyism (take your pick). The film follows the seemingly deranged Dr. Miles Bennell who realized that aliens from another world are cloning themselves into replicas of townsfolk, taking over the population, unnoticed. By the time he pieces the evidence and mechanics of this plan together, the central Californian town of Santa Mira is so far infiltrated that he has nowhere to turn—his only hope is to flee and share his cautionary tale with the world.
Critics and historians have interpreted this film as being critical of the far right or the far left. For me, it felt pretty obviously a criticism of the Soviet Union and communism but I suppose we can meet in the middle at “authoritarianism bad”. Either way, with its “good ole’ American boy” patriotism and over reliance on a heavily aged metaphor, the film didn’t really play as scary by my standards. I thought it would make for a pretty ok episode of “The Twilight Zone” but it hardly carried its 80 minute runtime. Still, it was neat to get a glimpse into 1950’s Los Angeles and the minds of Americans in the ‘50s.