A relentless and profoundly unsettling descent into gnawing paranoia, frantic fear and the steady erosion of hope in the face of all-consuming conformity.
Remakes are generally considered to be inferior to the original especially when the original is a critically renowned classic but Philip Kaufman's reinterpretation of the 1956 film is a brilliant update making a memorable exception. This increases the horror elements and emphasises its science fiction roots and it's a great suspense film too building the tension slowly (maybe a little too slow for some) and resulting in a paranoia thriller adding some fantastic social commentary along the way. Essentially the story remains the same although the action is moved away from the small-town America setting in the 1956 film to San Francisco where Department of Health scientist Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) begins to notice behavioural changes in her boyfriend. She confides her fears that he is an imposter to her boss, Matthew who is in love with her. In fact the simmering love between them is neatly interwoven into the plot, which deepens as it becomes clear that people are changing into some other lifeforms. There's some interesting special effects and the film is quite unsettling. Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy and Veronica Cartwright support and keen eyed viewers may spot Robert Duvall in a very small cameo and it's a neat piece of film trivia to catch Kevin McCarthy, the star from the original film, and Don Siegel, the original's director, pop up in a homage to it. This is certainly a film to seek out and try if you've never seen it.