What's Timeless About "Body Snatchers"?

One thing I like about watching old movies is thinking about what they would do to remake them for a newer audience. This thought arises because Invasion of the Body Snatchers was, upon creation, a frightening movie but has since veered far from the genre of horror. The way in which the film was shot has since become cliché and commonplace, techniques used by parody films. With zooms to close-ups, action-stopping screams, and daunting music, it was hard not to laugh at moments that were supposed to be scary. We have seen all these techniques so many times that the original films have lost their magic. This is probably why old movies, like this one for example, have suffered so many remakes and adaptations. The formula is still good, but the means through which to deliver it is outdated and needs to change in face of a new crowd.

However, despite the loss of the surface layer horror, one thing about Invasion of the Body Snatchers still remains frightening. The horror element comes not from the mysterious aliens, but rather the loss of one’s own identity. Your identity is as important to you as life itself for without it, you do not exist. Invasion shows that identity is not physical; it is not appearance, not your voice, not even your mannerisms. Those can all be reproduced to a certain extent—and apparently perfectly so in the diegetic world of Invasion. Reproducing these physical properties—even to the smallest detail—does not replicate your identity. “I don’t know what to call it,” says one character of her uncle’s replication, “it’s just not him.” It is terrifying to lose your identity, or for those around you to do so. Despite the cinematic techniques losing their ability to scare a modern audience, the idea of losing one’s identity resonates deeply enough to frighten a timeless audience.