Search - Body Snatchers on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Sci-Fi Violence Movie Release: 1993 DVD Release: 11/23/1999 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 27 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Alien Film

Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers is the third screen version of Jack Finney's cold war science fiction novel -Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Marty Malone (Gabrielle Anwar) is moving with her father, stepmother, and stepbrother to a military base where her father will investigate possible environmental and ecological problems. Before they get to town, Marty is warned in a gas station restroom by a crazed looking military man that, "They get you when you sleep!" Marty adjusts to life on the base by flirting with a young officer and making friends with the rebellious daughter of the base commander. These friends help her when a plot by aliens to turn all humans into unemotional, unfeeling "pod people" shifts into high gear. As her family and friends are attacked, Marty doesn't know who to trust. Previous versions of his story were directed by Don Siegel (1956) and Phillip Kaufman (1978). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Gabrielle Anwar - Marty Malone
Terry Kinney - Steve Malone
Billy Wirth - Tim Young
Meg Tilly - Carol Malone
Forest Whitaker - Major Collins

One of the few mainstream, large-budget films that cult director Abel Ferrara has made over the years, Body Snatchers did not receive the wide theatrical release that it deserved. Hopefully, this Warner Bros. DVD release of the teen sci-fi horror movie will open up the picture to a wider audience. The movie may pale in comparison to the two previous official tellings of the -Invasion of the Body Snatchers story, but that is really a testament to how great those versions are, not how poor this one is. Body Snatchers succeeds as a smart, modern teenage horror movie, and the fact that it is honestly tense and viscerally upsetting is probably what caused it to receive such poor distribution. The movie is quite horrifying when compared to later teen horror movies (such as The Faculty, which basically tells the same story), but unlike them, Body Snatchers doesn't keep winking at its young audience to remind them that they don't really have to be afraid. Director Abel Ferrara is infamous for bringing artistic pretensions to pulpy genre material but Body Snatchers is more straightforward then most of his work and the movie is streamlined and taut. Unfortunately, this DVD release doesn't feature any bonus material such as a commentary track or interviews that let Ferrara explain his vision. The special effects in this movie are very creative (and quite disgusting in an unsettling David Cronenberg way), but there are no behind-the-scenes features that let sci-fi geeks see how they were created. Thankfully, the DVD scores high marks for its audio and visual presentation. The widescreen transfer looks great and the dark images are clean and sharp. Likewise the audio transfer is well balanced and sounds great coming out a television speaker, and even better when fed through a stereo system. You don't even get a trailer on the DVD, which is more of a statement on how little publicity was done for the movie than on what few features this disc has. The most important thing a DVD should do is offer a good transfer of the theatrical film and this disc gets high marks for that. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide