Dr. Berman was right, I think, to end her essay with a reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Apart from the banal analyses seeing the original film (1956) as either an allegory about the Communist threat or a veiled critique of McCarthyism, I have always felt that the terror evoked by this film relied on its profound challenge to our dependence on the sense of the familiar. I have seen all four versions of the film, including the recent Nicole Kidman vehicle (2007) which, despite the fact that the central character remains a psychiatrist, lacks the subplot all the others featured involving a mental health professional dismissing as crazy those alarmed by the perception that their loved ones “were not themselves”. In the Kidman version, in fact, the pod people have lost so much of their terrifying quality that it is difficult to believe they fool anyone. Whereas, in the original, those taken over by the aliens retained their ability to convey emotion but were always a little ‘off’, as if they were imitating genuine emotion (a clear evocation of Capgras’), in the latest version, they are merely emotionless and robotic. This misses the point.

There are other films, from the ’50’s as well, which evoked the same terror. Most memorable were The Thing (1951) and Invaders from Mars (1953). (If you’re interested, for my money you can forget the more recent remakes. Go right back to the originals.)