Blu-ray, DVD Release: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 17, 2012
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films


Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie scene

Bodies froth before being snatched in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The classic 1956 science fiction/horror thriller film Invasion of the Body Snatchers finally arrives on Blu-ray.

Kevin McCarthy (Kansas City Bomber) stars as a doctor in a small California town whose patients are becoming hysterical and accuse their loved ones of “becoming” emotionless imposters. It doesn’t take too long for McCarthy and his friends to discover that plant-like extra-terrestrials have invaded Earth and are replicating the townsfolk in giant seed “pods,” taking possession of their souls while they sleep. Realizing that the epidemic is out of control and spreading everywhere, the remaining humans find themselves in a terrifying race for their lives.

Directed by the great Don Siegel (Dirty Harry) and co-starring Dana Wynter (On the Double), Carolyn Jones (TV’s The Addams Family) and Larry Gates (Funny Lady), the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1993.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has inspired countless knock-offs, parodies and at least three remakes: Philip Kaufman’s very fine Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Abel Ferrara’s weirdly entertaining The Body Snatchers (1993) and James McTeigue’s awful The Invasion (2007).

The film was previously released on DVD by a couple of other labels, but has long been out of print. That said, Olive Films is also issuing a DVD edition of the movie. Both Olive editions have been restored and transferred from a finegrain 35mm print.

As is usually the case with Olive releases, there are no bonus features on the discs. But here’s a trailer to check out:

 

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.