Body Snatchers

Body Snatchers is a 1993 American science-fiction horror film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Christine Elise, R. Lee Ermey, and Forest Whitaker. The screenplay by Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli, and Nicholas St. John is loosely based on the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. Body Snatchers is the third film adaptation of Finney's novel, the first being Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, followed by a second adaptation of the same title. in 1978. The plot is centered around the discovery that people working at a military base in Alabama are being replaced by duplicates grown from plantlike pods, indistinguishable from normal people except for their utter lack of emotion. The film marked Ferrara's first venture into the science fiction genre as well as his first feature to receive a financial backing from a major film studio. Producer Robert H. Solo also produced the 1978 adaptation. Body Snatchers was first screened in-competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 1993, and given a limited U.S. theatrical release on January 14, 1994. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the likeliness, realism, and special effects, though it was criticized for its plot.