1956 science fiction classicRating: 17/20
Plot: Pod people are surreptitiously landing on earth (aka Earth, the earth, and The Earth) and snatching bodies. Several of Dr. Kevin McCarthy's patients claim that their spouses, friends, and relatives are not acting like themselves. The whole town seems paranoid, but then Dr. McCarthy discovers the truth--that alien pod folk are creating doppelgangers in an attempt to skew voting for America's new favorite television reality show--Tony Danza and Twelve Other People in the Same House?! Lol!? McCarthy and the woman with whom he's currently banging have to warn everybody else before Steve Urkel wins!
Because of my inability to make spaces, it's actually been a while since I watched this one. It was around the time Kevin McCarthy died, and I'm pretty sure that shane-movies.blogspot.com is somehow responsible, responsible in one of those cosmic ways that you can't begin to understand without the use of recreational drugs or maybe just lots of cough syrup. Or maybe mouth wash! I had a chess player a couple weeks ago, back when I couldn't make spaces, who had a small bottle of mouth wash with him during chess club. I thought he was just pretending to drink it, but I noticed later that the bottle was empty. That cat's the type of cat who can understand the cosmos and the connection between Kevin McCarthy's death and my blog even if you can't. Cory recommended this movie. I hadn't seen since my dad made me watch it as a kid, and I probably appreciate it more a little now. The acting is solid for a cheapo sci-fi movie from the 50s. The writing's intelligent. The characters are given things to say that actually gives them a little personality instead of just saying all the typical wooden things that wooden characters say in a lot of sci-fi flicks from the era. And I think it's neat thinking about this in the context of 1950's international affairs and/or political goings-on. Quite obviously, this has to be a warning to parents of will happen if they allow their children to listen to filthy rock 'n' roll music (i.e. that black guy, Bing Crosby, that guy who boinked his twelve-year-old cousin, and that guy who used to pee on his guitar), but the message still rings true because children are currently being lured to the dark side by the hip hop and and the devil novelty entertainment provided by "Weird" Al Yankovic. My favorite scene is the one in Dr. McCarthy's friend's house with the creepy featureless body.
This is a very atmospheric and effective horror film. The 1978 Donald Sutherland version is also solid (a 16, for me). I would give this an 18. Thanks for checking it out and writing about it before I passed away. If you would like a replacement, I would choose "Wait Until Dark".
ReplyDelete'Wait Until Dark'...aight.
ReplyDeleteGot more of your recommendations coming. I can make spaces now! Oh, our only computer is a laptop, so no, we had to do a little more than plug something in. It wasn't a lot more though.