BEFORE: Again, not much point in trying to link from a Swedish film to a Hollywood one. There is a trail that goes from Peter Carlberg through "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" but I won't bore you with the details.
There are 65 days left in the year, and just 15 films left to watch, which seems like a great deal - so I'll be taking 50 days off, which should allow me some extra time to catch up on Star Wars-related novels and also do some Christmas shopping. But my fear is that once the cable channels stop showing horror films, they'll start up with some new films from 2014 and 2015 that I'll need to add to the list. And I'm trying to get my watchlist down to 130 films, but with all that time off it could balloon back up to 170 or 180 films before January 1. I don't want to let that happen, or I'll never finish the project during 2016, either.
THE PLOT: A teenage girl and her father discover alien clones are replacing humans on a remote U.S. military base in Alabama.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (Movie #1,203)
AFTER: Well, the plant-based pod people are at it again, which ties in nicely with my theme this week of aliens and other nasties taking control over people's bodies and minds. They first tried taking over the planet back in 1956, and then I guess when that failed, they tried again in San Francisco back in 1978. Which I assumed also failed, because they targeted people like restaurant health inspectors, and that probably put them in touch with a lot of vegetarians and people who like to compost, and when you're primarily plant-based, that's not a recipe for success.
This time, they tried taking over a military base, which seems like a much better strategy. This gave them access to weapons, supplies, and transportation to take them to other army bases around the country, so they could better spread the message of the pod people, which is basically to surrender and get yourself duplicated so we can all move forward together. Umm, except you, that is, because you'll be dead.
(I realize they re-made this film again, in 2007 under the title "The Invasion", but I don't have a copy of that. Maybe next year.)
Unfortunately, this is all old hat by now. And there are several actors and actresses in this film who come across as complete blanks - the general's daughter, for example, and nearly every one of the soldiers. There was simply nothing done to help distinguish one character from another, which means that becoming expressionless pod people is something of an improvement for most of the cast. It's the only thing that makes them somewhat interesting, but we're supposed to consider the alien takeover as a BAD thing.
If the pod people take over and replace humans while they sleep, then the whole audience for this film was at risk, if you ask me.
Starring Terry Kinney (last seen in "The Last of the Mohicans"), Meg Tilly (last seen in "The Big Chill"), Gabrielle Anwar (last seen in "The Three Musketeers" (1993)), Billy Wirth, R. Lee Ermey (last seen in "The Watch"), Forest Whitaker (last seen in "Stakeout"), Christine Elise, Kathleen Doyle, Reilly Murphy.
RATING: 3 out of 10 soil samples
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