The Invasion
released 2007
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“The Invasion” is an American, scifi, horror, thriller film produced by Bruce Berman, Doug Davison, Susan Downey, Roy Lee, Steve Richards, Ronald G. Smith, Joel Silver, Jessica Alan and David Gambino. It was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, the screenplay was written by David Kajganich and is based on the novel called “The Body Snatchers” written by Jack Finney. This film is a remake of the 1953 film “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”. It stars a huge and talented cast which includes the likes Nicole Kidman, Jeffrey Wright, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Veronica Cartwright, Josef Sommer, Celia Weston, Roger Rees, Eric Benjamin, Susan Floyd, Stephanie Berry, Alexis Raben, Adam LeFevre, Joanna Merlin, Cloie Wyatt Taylor, Luray Cooper, Field Blauvelt and so many more.

The Invasion IMDb webpage

“The Invasion” is the story of psychiatrist Carol Bennell, played by Nicole Kidman, who one day, out of the blue, begin to see people behave strangely. One by one people in her town exhibit a loss of emotion, a loss of identity and a general hive mind with a sinister purpose. One by one, Carol sees the people in her practice and the people around her change into a kind of hive mind as if they joined a cult and were brainwashed. This is a terrifying realization and things get worse when she realizes that she cannot sleep lest she turn into one of them.

This story is timeless and never gets old. It’s the 1953 film with a modern reboot and it works. The sexism from the 1950s has been flushed out, although, you can’t say that about racism in the time of 2007 Hollywood. In any case let’s give progress, no matter how incomplete it is, its due. This is a great film that is fun to watch with some of Hollywood’s biggest talents. Also, as a side note, this film used a lot of extras who deserve mention for their contributions. So, ‘THANKS’, to everyone who worked on this film.

One of the elements that make this story timeless are that we, the viewers, are watching things from the outside of the story and know what is going on while Carol must figure things out and find safety. This makes some scenes nailbiters. Carol catches on quickly and the next part of the story is watching her and rooting for her to get away. Horror movies and thrillers that do this keep their audiences and if they do it well enough you might get some screams or exclamations from them. I find that this is a film best enjoyed around many people because we all see what’s going on and want the main character to do the same asap.

Another thing I loved about the film was that the creature was a kind of extra-terrestrial fungus/ creature that infects people and uses their bodies the way we drive cars around. Once a person is infected and becomes part of the hive mind I don’t see any way of saving them. That creates a kind of desperation in the story. I loved it.

There are so many alien invasion stories and this one might be the most pernicious. The scifi great H.G. Wells was probably the very first author to handle this kind of story in his work “War Of The Worlds”, which is a brilliant story. In short, this is a tried and true story with many more versions to come in the future.

John Ink2Quill

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