#10: I'm Making Spoon Bread!

(Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956)

My absolute favorite part of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has literally nothing to do with any body snatching. In fact, it has very little to do with the plot of the film at all. Early in the story, our hero (played by Kevin McCarthy) is meeting up with an old flame at her house, and her mother offers him to stay for dinner. And what does she say she's making? "Spoon bread." I had no idea what spoon bread was (it's some kind of savory pudding) but the enthusiasm with which the actress delivered the line made me laugh out loud. So there you go.

Aside from spoon bread, Invasion of the Body Snatchers still has a lot to offer. If you've ever been paranoid about anything in your entire life, this might be the best film you can watch. Unlike a lot of other films, the supposed "crazies" here are 100% right the whole way through. The reason your dad is acting so weird? He's not your dad, he's an alien drone whose only mission in life is to conquer our planet. So run. Run now!

One of the best things Invasion of the Body Snatchers has going for it is the concept that anyone could be a pod person, and it would be near impossible to tell. The film creates an atmosphere of extreme tension in all the scenes where characters we'd seen just previously are acting completely normal, but with a few small quirks. You get whipped up in a frenzy, much like the rest of the characters, until you feel the same panic McCarthy feels when he shouts "They're already here! You're next! You're next!"

Despite their efforts, Hollywood is never going to produce a better version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (but the '70s version still has Leonard Nimoy!). Communism is no longer the perceivable threat it was in the 1950s, and no studio would let the subtle moments of this film slide by without filling them with a shaky-cam chase scene or gory mutilation. It's a nice little sci-fi/horror film, made at exactly the right time.

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I have to admit, I've kind of had enough of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I watched it for a Politics and Film class I'm taking and ended up writing a film analysis on it, so I really wish I could just skip this post because I don't need to talk about this movie any more. I would just post my film analysis, but it's kind of long and not very good, so I'll spare all of you good people the agony. But I'm kind of mentally done with this film.

In case you didn't already know, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about the terrifying, ever-present fear of COMMUNISM! That's right, the first incarnation of this film was made during the McCarthy era and the Red Scare, and those scary, soulless aliens that are taking over the bodies of the main character's loved ones are actually communists in disguise. As aliens. Or maybe they actually are just aliens. I'm still not clear on that.

Okay, I'm kidding. I'm pretty clear on it. They are actually aliens. But the aliens are a metaphor for communists. At least that's one theory. The other theory is that the filmmakers made a film about aliens that grow in weird space pods and take over the bodies of innocent citizens, and American society just assumed it was about communism. Because there's this theory out there that when a society is going through a problem they will project that problem onto things in popular culture such as television and film. I like to believe that the filmmakers are intelligent people and the metaphor was intentional, but I also used to dream of being a screenwriter so I might be biased. Either way, this film has kind of gone down in history as being a big red communist metaphor, so that's pretty much all it will be remembered for. That, and the multiple remakes.

To be completely honest, this film is kind of enjoyable in the same way that any 1950's horror film is enjoyable. By today's standards of horror it's completely cheesy and not scary at all, but that's kind of why it's fun. So I guess I don't hate the film, I just hope that I never have to write about it ever again.

#7: What Have You Done to His Eyes!?

(Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polanski, 1968)

Warning: Spoilers. So many spoilers.

If one movie exists that makes me never want to have children, it's Rosemary's Baby. The first time I saw this film I was in high school, and I don't think I fully understood just how terrifying it was. Now, 4+ years later, I find this to be one of the scariest movies ever made. Maybe it's a woman thing, but there isn't much that is more terrifying than the possibility of giving birth to a demon baby. Being raped by the devil, maybe. But don't worry, Rosemary's Baby has that covered, too.

Beyond the demon child/devil rape scenario that takes place in this film, there's also the constant presence of paranoia. Rosemary (iconically played by Mia Farrow) starts to believe that her seemingly innocent, elderly neighbors are actually witches, and that she is carrying the devil's spawn due to a ritual they've performed. She gets pale. She feels sick. She has an incurable pain in her womb. She starts eating raw meat. Oh, and on top of it all, her husband won't believe her. Because, it turns out, HE'S IN ON IT. And no one will listen to her. She gets told that she's paranoid by almost everyone she talks to, and she sees her life spiraling out of control and all she wants to do is save herself and her baby (who, until the very end, she has no idea is actually a demon baby). And she can't.

Now, all of this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that she's RIGHT. About EVERYTHING. She is more right than any "paranoid" person in any movie about paranoia has ever been. With the help of Hutch, the one person who doesn't think she's crazy, she manages to figure out almost everything that's going on around her. Of course, Hutch is killed off by the people who are driving her to madness, and she is left alone with knowledge that she has no idea what to do with and absolutely no one to trust. And it's heartbreaking because all she wants is to have her baby, and the one thing she doesn't know is that the witches don't just want the baby. They created the baby. And no matter what she does, she can't get away.

In the end, we never see the baby. As far as a description goes, all we're left with is Rosemary maniacally asking what they've done to his eyes. Some (*ahem* JACK) are left unsatisfied with the ending of the film because Rosemary still accepts her role as the baby's mother. Because she IS the baby's mother and nothing can break that bond. But for me, whether Rosemary accepts her son or not doesn't matter. What I've always been left with is the unnerving feeling that, sometimes, when everyone is telling you you're paranoid...you aren't.

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We could talk about how Roman Polanski is an excellent director. We could talk about how Mia Farrow delivers an amazing performance. But that would be neglecting one of the greatest features of Rosemary's Baby: the Dakota building in New York City. Granted, the interiors of the Dakota were filmed on a soundstage, but the building itself has an incredibly imposing presence that bookends the movie. Immediately upon seeing the opening shot, with Farrow's lullaby playing over it, you get the feeling that some seriously creepy business is about to go down. And you couldn't be more right.

The most worrisome thing about Rosemary's Baby is that there's no reason to be scared by anything that is going on. Rather than choose to show anything overtly demonic going on, Polanski instead chooses to ratchet up Rosemary's paranoia.

You can really look at this movie from two different perspectives. On one hand, you can side with Rosemary, who feels that her pregnancy is completely unnatural, slowly convincing herself that everyone she knows is against her. The film provides plenty of evidence towards this side (her dreams, her constant pain) and you can see that there could be some truth to her beliefs. On the other hand, if you come to the situation from a cold, logical perspective, you would side with the neighbors and Rosemary's husband (John Cassavetes). Almost every other character in this movie is convinced nothing is wrong with Rosemary, and that it's all in her mind.

And that's why this movie's ending works. If you side with Rosemary (as I think Polanski tries to do), you are completely vindicated by the films final reveal. If you sided with cold logic, you get one of the rare chances to be truly shocked by a film's ending. Granted, I wasn't really a fan of Rosemary's decision to keep her spawn of Satan. But I think that's what I like about the movie the most. I was so emotionally involved in the film that I truly cared enough about the characters to be outraged by a character's decision. I may not have liked the ending, but I'm really glad I didn't.