The extraterrestrial invasion of Santa Mira is more than just the event that this film chronicles. No, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has transcended its simple science fiction roots to become a cultural touchstone. We often refer to people acting differently as pod people; those who may have never seen this film or its many sequels intimately know its plot and what it means.

Thanks to this new Olive Films Signature reissue, I’ve had the opportunity to watch this film again and my goal was to evaluate it as if I were watching it when it was first released.

The conceit is simple: Alien plant spores have shown up in a small California town and reproduce exact copies of human beings, taking on the exact physical characteristics, personalities and even memories of those that sleep near them. Within a month, they’ve completely taken over the town and created an untroubled world, a place of no emotion or worry, a place where everyone is one of us. 

Near the end of the film, one of the pod people tells our hero, Dr. Miles J. Bennel (Kevin McCarthy) that their way is so much better. “Love, desire, ambition, faith – without them, life’s so simple, believe me.” When he exclaims that he wants no part of this new world, he’s told that he has no choice.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is bold in its depiction of love in 1956. Both Miles and his former flame Becky (Dana Wynter, Airport) are suffering through divorces and unlike many films of the era, they are not represented as bad people for their actions. Instead, their romance is championed. It may mean nothing to us watching the film 62 years after its release, but the fact that they stay in the same room and have a romance at all was groundbreaking.

Miles and Becky manage to escape the entire town being taken over until a dog is nearly run over. Becky’s emotional outburst alerts the pod people, who blast sirens as our heroic couple races against an army chasing them, up steps, through city streets, across mountains, even with Miles carrying her (there’s a charming moment in the bonus footage on this disk where Wynter says that McCarthy never complained or even got out of breath because he’s a gentleman) in a fruitless attempt to escape. They separate and when they finally find one another, Miles can’t wait to kiss his lover. In horror, he learns that she is now one of them too.

That’s when the most arresting images of this movie appear. Miles runs into the night, a non-stop chase that brings him onto a crowded highway filled with transport trucks loaded with pods bound for the major cities. He screams in vain at passing cars as they narrowly avoid hitting them, his panicked face streaked with sweat and rain and car lights in the deep dark night, bellowing, “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next!”

This was to be the original ending of the movie, but focus groups — yes they had them back then, too — wanted a happy ending. The promise at the end, where the FBI is alerted and the pods will obviously be stopped, rings hollow. That final image of Miles on the highway in abject panic as the camera pans up and away is just too powerful.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is filled with talent, with everyone giving their best performance, from the future Morticia Addams, Carolyn Jones, to character actor par excellence King Donovan and even future Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah, who has a minor role as a gas meter reader.

Some see a story within a story in this film, a meta-commentary on the dangers facing America such as McCarthyism while others see it as an allegory for the loss of personal rights in the wake of Communism. Several connected with the film state that it had no such aim, but you can graft any story onto any movie if you want.

This was remade in 1978, which is a really great version that goes even deeper (and gorier) into the storyline of this film, as well as Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers and the 2007 film The Invasion. And Santa Mira is, of course, the setting for Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. Obviously, the film is a big influence on John Carpenter, as you can see hints of it in his film They Live.

McCarthy would later reprise his role of Dr. Miles in the 1978 remake, as well as Looney Tunes: Back in Action. He’s also Fred Francis, named for that noted director, in Joe Dante’s The Howling. The interview segments with him on this disk make him seem like quite the likable fellow. Actually, all of the extras are heartwarming, making one feel that they’re sitting around with some movie-loving friends and discussing this together.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a film that speaks to audiences with the same confident power that it did in the mid 1950’s. It has lessons within it that should never be lost and I feel that it should be required viewing for all film lovers, even if you dislike science fiction (that said, it’s closer to a horror movie than pure SF).

The new Olive Films Signature release is packed with extras, such as a new high-definition digital restoration of the film, complete with two commentary tracks — one by film historian Richard Harland Smith and the other a roundtable featuring actors Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, and filmmaker Joe Dante. Then there are several documentaries, such as “The Stranger in Your Lover’s Eyes,” a two-part visual essay with actor and son of director Don Siegel, Kristoffer Tabori, reading from his father’s book “A Siegel Film;” “The Fear is Real,” which has Larry Cohen and Joe Dante give their thoughts on the film; “I No Longer Belong: The Rise and Fall of Walter Wanger;” “Sleep No More: Invasion of the Body Snatchers Revisited,” which has comments from fans of the film including John Landis, Mick Garris, and Stuart Gordon; “The Fear and the Fiction: The Body Snatchers Phenomenon,” which delves deep into the production of the film and its many meanings; “Return to Santa Mira,” which explores the shooting locations; “What’s In a Name?” a discussion of the significance of the film’s title; a gallery of rare documents detailing aspects of the film’s production including the never-produced opening narration to have been read by Orson Welles (!); an essay by author and film programmer Kier-La Janisse and the film’s original theatrical trailer.

You can get the new Olive Films Signature release right here. But hurry — it’s limited to only 5,000 copies!

Disclaimer: I was sent this film by Olive Films for review and in no way did that impact this article.

Dr. Otto Frankenstein works in his lab all day and to the normal daytime world, he seems like an ordinary doctor. But at night, he works on perfecting his own form of life, Mosiac, putting together this inhuman human from several dead bodies. Then, once completed, Mosiac repays him by killing him and we still have an hour left.

Directed by Mario Mancini (who was the cinematographer for Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks and The Girl in Room 2A), this is a film featuring real surgical footage, nonsensical dialogue and a total lack of plot. Suffice to say I loved it.

Mosiac spends the rest of the movie replacing his constantly failing organs, which means that he must murder and murder and murder some more. Have you ever wondered, “What if someone used a giant leg bone to kill someone?” this would be the movie that answers your inquest.

Also, in whatever nameless city in some unknown country that this is supposed to be set in, possibly Germany, the women in the night have no issues with a gigantic monster in a leather Nazi-esque outfit picking them up with merely a few grunts. No money discussion — he kills them way before they tell him how much a half and half costs.

This movie was inspired by Italian horror, sex and gore comics, like Oltretomba. If you’re offended by the blood and guts and books of this film, consider this a stern warning: avoid these comics at all costs. They take it even further. And then further. And then some.

There’s a new blu ray of this that’s been released — the film is in public domain — that finally fixes the rough prints that are out there right now. It’s nearly impossible to find, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking. For all the foibles of this film, it has a certain something.

As a bonus, here’s some artwork that I did of the film.

Known by several other titles Mosquito der Schänder, Bloodlust: The Black Forest Vampire, Bloodlust: The Vampire of Nuremberg, Mosquito and Mosquito the Rapist, this is a dark and disturbing 1970’s Eurohorror based on the macabre true story of Kuno Hofmann, the “Vampire of Nuremberg.” Cut and banned in many countries, Mondo Macabro is finally bringing the full-length and uncut version to blu ray.

Mondo Macabro describes this one as a “grown up fairy tale, albeit one that includes bloodsucking, eyeball evisceration and voyeuristic lesbian sex scenes among a host of other activities.” That pretty much covers it!

Director Marijan Vajda mainly worked in documentaries, which is a way of seeing this film. No one is named, but The Man (Werner Pochath, who was in both Ratman and Thunder 3, so he’s on the Sam movie spectrum) is a deaf and mute accountant who has been abused his entire life, from a father that beat him and raped his sister in front of him to his fellow schoolmates attacking him and now, his co-workers and neighbors with treat him with scorn. Maybe it’s because he’s weird. Maybe it’s because he’s so quiet. Maybe it’s because he plays with dolls.

The only light in his life is The Girl (Birgit Zamulo), who dresses up all day and dances, and may be potentially just as damaged as our hero. The Mother warns her to stay away from The Man, because there’s something off about him.

At night, The Man tries to visit prostitutes, but he can’t communicate or perform. Soon, only the dead provide him with comfort, as he starts slicing up bodies, decapitating them, stealing their eyes and even using a glass straw to drink their blood. He starts leaving a graffiti tag behind, the words M.Q. or Mosquito, and the press panics the city with news of a modern day vampire.

The living are still safe until The Girl falls from the roof, in an act that we’re left. to believe may or may not be suicide. Losing the only person he really loves sends The Man over the edge and into a spiral of violence after he fails to bring her back to life by feeding her his blood.

This bit of Swiss weirdness isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s slow-moving, but I wasn’t bored. By the time The Man gets to killing, it descends into the sleazy madness hinted at by the back of the box. But it’s a near-silent meditation on trying to escape abuse and man’s continual inhumanity to man. It also starts with a great square up real that attempts to paint this movie as an educational experience when all it really wants to do is get you to watch the creeptastic carnage on display.

I’d never heard of this before and was pleasantly surprised that it’s such a sensitive — well, as sensitive as a vampire movie with plenty of gore can be — and well-acted film.

The new release features a 2K scan that looks beautiful, as well as exclusive interviews with assistant director Marijan David Vajda on the film (as well as his career and the career of his father) and actress Birgit Zamulo, who has some insightful thoughts on what it’s like to be in a film that’s sympathetic to a murderer. Plus, you get the original UK trailer, audio choices and some great trailers that’ll inspire you to buy more of the great stuff these guys put out. It comes out on November 13 and you can grab it from Mondo Macabro or Diabolik DVD.

Disclaimer: I was sent this film by Mondo Macabro for review and in no way did that impact this article.

Sebastian has become possessed and now has the power to make his thoughts come true. Somehow, all that allows him to do is relive his past lives again and again.

Director José Ramón Larraz also worked in comic books, as well as helming the films Symptoms and Vampyres.

The film starts with Sebastian learning that his father has died and his mother feeling free and ready to start her life all over again.

It turns out that Sebastian was born with a veil of skin covering his face, which is a symbol of psychic power. That may be how he knew that his father was dead before anyone told him.

Also, Sebastian has issues with women. He puts off anyone who wants to be with him and gets upset when his mother kisses another man. Learning that his father was with a whore when he died, he declares that all women are whores. His mother answers by slapping him.

Sebastian and a girl who is interested in him, Marta, end up kissing but he forces himself on her until his lip begins to bleed. At confession later, a priest tells him that wishing evil is the same as doing it. What does this have to do with Marta being dead now?

An old woman named Olga remembers Sebastian from the past as he has a vision of hanging himself. Olga awakens her granddaughter Angie, sure that something bad is about to happen to Sebastian. There seems to be a romantic triangle between him, Angie and his brother Joe.

Sebastian ends up recording his mother having sex with her new lover. This upsets him so much that his shower is filled with blood and his vision of a ghost woman makes his lip bleed again.

That love triangle I mentioned above ends up with Angie and Joe having sex. Yet Olga thinks that Sebastian and Angie have an attraction too. She’s worried about the danger that he brings. While on a ferry with Angie, Sebastian sees the ghost woman again. He confesses to Angie that when he thinks of someone he hates, he makes them die and his lip bleed — that’s his stigmata. He also can see himself from the outside of his own body and he probably killed his father.

Joe confronts Sebastian about the issues that he’s having in school, so Sebastian thinks of him dying in a car crash. Angie believes that he is evil, but he says that he has no control. Once he realizes that someone is going to die, it’s too late.

Here’s where things get really bonkers: Sebastian keeps seeing the ghost woman, so he talks with Olga. She hypnotizes him and he remembers where he killed Marta. He then goes into his past lives, where he sees his sister, who looks exactly like Angie. They have sex and he awakens in a panic as his father had become angry with him.

While he doesn’t want to see Olga again, Sebastian uses tapes of her seance to calm himself. Soon, he is visiting the setting for his dreams in real life and has more visions of his past inside them. Angie comes searching for him and he shows her where people died in the building as he starts to bleed from his lip.

That’s when we go back into the past again, where he has sex with his sister again and his father criticizes him. When his sister is engaged to be married, he becomes depressed. She doesn’t even think of him any longer and he can’t forget her or stop disappointing his father.

That’s when he uses an axe to kill his parents, then starts making love to the maid. He decides to strangle her instead, then remembers many other girls that he is killed. A mirror breaks and he begins to bleed from the lip as we return to the present and he listens to the seance tapes.

I honestly had to read several sites to make sense of what happens in this movie. It’s long on style, short on substance and yet it has a unique doom feel. I was pretty forgiving of its narrative issues, but your mileage may vary. I was interested to see what would happen next and it had enough verve to keep me watching.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime or order it from Diabolik DVD.

In my non-movie watching life, I write advertising copy for a living. A lot of that involves the constant search for inspiration as I battle against deadlines. So the central conceit of this movie, which concerns how Mitch Stockridge, a self-help author, gets his story ideas spoke to me. But how’s the final product?

Mitch (Dennis Friebe) has taken his life from being bullied in his teens to a successful career as a self-help author. But it’s not enough. He’ll never please his father. And he’ll never quiet the fans, journalists and even close friends who keep asking him where he gets his ideas. That’s because the truth is stranger than fiction: his ideas come from a monster that lives in his bathroom that he feeds people to. In exchange, he gets a crumpled piece of paper with scrawled ideas that he takes for his own.

After trying to write an actual novel instead of just another self-help guide, Mitch deas with the depression that comes with shooting for the stars and falling short. That’s when he decides to start feeding everyone and everything he can to the creative beast. And all of the people disappearing around him leads to the police investigating him, with Abby the lead detective going for interested to a vendetta to pure hatred. That’s because of more than just this case — one of Mitch’s self-help books inspired her husband so much that he left her and their family behind to chase his dreams.

So is this a real monster? Or is Mitch just crazy? And is Abby just as crazy for starting to believe in it, too?

Now, Mitch wants to prove the critics and his father wrong once and for all. And that means drastic measures and deaths that are way more important than just some girls he’s met in bars and on CraigsList. No, it’s time for his best friend John to meet the teeth of the bathroom monster if he really wants to be a celebrated writer.

There’s definitely a bit of Little Shop of Horrors and Basket Case at work here. I really liked how you never really see the monster, just its teeth and the sounds it makes as it tears apart its meals. There are a lot of questions raised by this film, such as Mitch’s journey from abused child to the caretaker for his father, the pains and sacrifices that it takes to create and the relationships that it costs along the way. I really felt that last part a lot.

This is definitely a low budget film, so go into it knowing that. It looks decent, though, with some solid editing and the leads are way better actors than you’d expect. There aren’t a lot of characters to like, however, as almost everyone is uniformly a bad person. There isn’t anyone to root for or learn from in this. But it is an intriguing meditation on the creative process, even if it feels like there could be more to the overall story.

The film’s IMDB site says that this film will be released on December 1. To learn more, visit the official site.

Disclaimer: I was sent this movie by its PR team, but as you know, that has no bearing on my review.

Before Renny Harlin did Die Hard 2 (or The Adventures of Ford Fairlane). Before Viggo Mortensen was in the Tolkien films. Before Tiny “Zeus” Lister was Deebo in Friday. Before Kane Hodder played Jason for the first time in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.

Before all these things, there was Prison.

In 1964, inmate Charlie Forsythe (Mortensen) is electrocuted for a crime he did not commit. And thirty years later, when the Creedmore Prison is re-opened, his spirit is there and ready to get revenge on Eaton Sharpe (Lane Smith, district attorney Jim Trotter III in My Cousin Vinny), who knew he was innocent. Now, he’s the warden!

Unless Forsythe repays the debt he owes, every inmate will die, including  Burke (also played by Mortensen). And what a cast of felons, including Lincoln Kilpatrick (Chosen Survivors), Tom Everett (Death Wish 4: The Crackdown), André De Shields (The Wiz himself!), the previously noted Lister, Larry Jenkins (Fletch), Hodder and more. And according to IMDB, “Most of the inmate extras in the film were portrayed by real-life inmates from a nearby prison to add realism to their performances. The armed guards on the towers were, of course, armed with live ammo at the time. Stephen E. Little (Rhino) was a former Hollywood stuntman, who was still a member of SAG, who happened to be serving time for manslaughter that he committed during a bar-room brawl.”

Helping the convicts is a doctor who advises the prison be closed, played by Chelsea Field (Teela from Masters of the Universe and wife of Scott Bakula).

Sure, it’s the same idea as Destroyer, Shocker and House 3/The Horror Show. But it’s entertaining enough and has a surprising amount of gore. It won’t bore you, that’s for sure. There’s a great scene of a convict’s guts exploding onto the mess hall as everyone tries to eat that I loved!

Scream Factory put this out awhile back. You should grab it and see what you think.