Body Snatchers 4K 1993

A take on the sci-fi theme “aliens among us,” directed by the very talented Abel Ferrara and, for some reason, undeservedly forgotten. Basically, the title alone makes it clear what the film is about. An environmental chemist arrives at a military town with his family to assess the threat of pollution from industrial waste and discovers something strange: some of the town’s residents are afraid to sleep, while others behave like zombies. Moreover, the number of the latter is slowly increasing. At the gas station just outside the town, the chemist’s daughter encounters a dark-skinned soldier hiding in the restroom, who warns her about the danger of falling asleep—a thought that will haunt her for a long time. And when she falls asleep with her headphones on in the bathroom and wakes up to find some tentacles crawling into her nose and mouth, she’ll have no choice but to believe that warning. Although, by then, it will most likely be too late.

I sat down to watch the movie expecting a piece of junk, but as I watched, it became clear that the film was made to a very, very high standard. It’s dynamic, suspenseful, and skillfully crafted. And some scenes—for example, the scene with the father’s failed transformation, the episode with the drawings at the kindergarten, or the dialogue with the main character’s zombified friend right before the finale—are simply brilliant. You can really feel the director’s talent. I also liked the mother of the family, who bears a striking resemblance to our own Anastasia Vertinskaya in her youth, and the atmosphere of hopelessness that builds toward the end, when the two main characters are left as the only sane people in the midst of a town overrun by aliens. The film’s box office receipts are astonishing—absolutely minuscule. And yet the film itself wasn’t made on a shoestring budget; in fact, the finale even features a number of high-quality, expensive explosion scenes. The reason for the audience’s indifference remains a mystery to me—it’s a talented film, after all. Abel Ferrara, known primarily for his *Bad Lieutenant*, rose to the occasion. A worthy sci-fi film.