Overview: Since its first publication in 1955, Jack Finney’s classic sci-fi/horror novel The Body Snatchers has inspired numerous adaptations and created a whole subgenre of era-defining alien doppelgangers in books, film, and TV. 2007’s The Invasion was ahead of the curve, its eerily predictive shift toward a virus-like contagion more frighteningly resonant in a post-pandemic world.

A space shuttle crashes to Earth carrying an alien organism. Soon people are changing, becoming detached and emotionless. People like CDC director Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam) who is investigating the crash. Meanwhile his ex-wife, psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman), sees the same behaviour in a friend of their son, and a patient claims that her husband is no longer her husband.

As people all across Washington D.C. become infected and the insidious epidemic spreads, Carol must fight to protect herself and her son, who might just hold the key to stopping the escalating invasion.

Produced by Joel Silver, and also starring Daniel Craig, Jeffrey Wright, and Veronica Cartwright, this edge-of-your-seat thriller makes its debut on 4K UHD with a wealth of new and archival extras.

4K Blu-ray Verdict: Personally, I think The Invasion works best as entertainment, perhaps disposable entertainment, but entertainment none-the-less. Its attention to metaphors and politically driven dialogue and events that happen that could be compared to larger scale, real life happenings are all there, but perhaps feel a little thrown in. But while the film tries to elevate itself above the level of what it is ie: a genre picture about the end of the world or monster from another planet scenario, what it does do right in an impressive manner is get the basics for its respective genre correct.

The Invasion is a remake, let’s get that straight for those unaware. It’s a remake of a film that can quite easily be classified into a specific type. The path it follows is of the horror with science fiction tie in formula, something you’ll only really enjoy if you’re a fan of that hybrid. The one thing The Invasion has going for it for the bulk of its runtime is its own personal spin on the bad guys of the piece.

We’ve all seen zombies or the un-dead or the infected in cinematic hits 28 Days and 28 Weeks Later, respectively, but here the pinch that makes The Invasion slightly more intriguing than your average survival horror genre is that the antagonists are in no way obviously hostile.

It seems like a small thing to tilt a film into the realm of the positive but in the hands of experienced European director Oliver Hirschbiegel, the little idea actually works quite well, having practically every supporting character not to mention extra come across as very intense and intimidating.

This is the sort of survival horror that will not relegate the viewer to barrages of gun fights and fast edits alá a Resident Evil film (although the third one of that trilogy showed some encouragement), but will instead have its feature characters actually have conversations with the infected enemies of the film.

While the familiar routine is to run away, hide or merely open fire on beasties in this sort of genre (sometimes all three), The Invasion has the villains talk back; negotiate with the heroes; talk them into joining them and actually pitch an argument as to why they’re superior.

This brings us onto the entire argument many will have with the film in terms with what these monsters are and what they say, with special attention to what it could mean. The film’s primary metaphorical meaning could be that once the entire world has been taken over by these germs inhabiting our own bodies, equality will be as one with everybody the same thus eliminating any more wars or global conflict and such.

This is actually brought up early on at a dinner between several characters, one of which being the protagonist Carol Bennell (Kidman) as she listens to a Russian talk about this very ideation - the fact that he is Russian could allow us to read into Communist parallels and the similarities those have to the world the body snatchers would create if they took over every one of us.

But like I said, the political slant and metaphorical meanings to be read into the psychology of certain people is a little heavy handed. Carol and the Russian sit at that dinner table and deliver their banter in a manner that the film demands. They are not there through chance; they are there because the film wants to come across as smarter than it should be and places them there purely so they can exchange the dialogue they do - it’s purely for our benefit.

Then there are the frequent signs and advertisements cleverly inserted into the background of most scenes with the words take the step plastered all over them, thus reminding everyone within the film to go through with it but since they are not in the foreground, it affects the film watching audience in a subliminal manner - you’ll notice it if you look hard enough but it feels like a clumsy insertion of further metaphorical content.

But apart from all this and the main reason I did enjoy the film is because of its eeriness and its attention to an uncomfortable atmosphere. The chief enemies in the film can be interacted with and a particularly good scene is when Carol must pretend to be one of them in order to get by without capture.

The Invasion is a text book example of a good set up in the horror infused with the science fiction genre before developing its initial ideas into thoroughly tense situations, such as the arresting of innocents then ready to be transformed and the escape in the subway train to the station in which Carol must act inconspicuous.

While The Invasion is not a fantastic film, it does satisfy a basic need to be entertained and it does get pulses racing now and again given the nasty subject matter on screen. The idea that the world is being overrun is not a new one, but it’s effective when done correctly and that atmosphere of no hope is nicely put across here.

The chases and manners in which characters deal with certain situations is tense and somewhat dramatic with less emphasis on action through attacking and more on action through thinking. As far as these un-dead survival pictures go, The Invasion isn’t too bad overall, and is most definitely a great night in’s entertainment.

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by film critics Andrea Subisati and Alexandra West, co-hosts of The Faculty of Horror podcast
Body Snatchers and Beyond, a new visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas
That Bug That’s Going Around, a new visual essay exploring The Invasion as pandemic prophecy by film scholar Josh Nelson
We’ve Been Snatched Before, an archival featurette from 2007
The Invasion: A New Story, an archival featurette from 2007
The Invasion: On the Set, an archival featurette from 2007
The Invasion: Snatched, an archival featurette from 2007
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film critics William Bibbiani and Sally Christie
Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket
Double-sided fold out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket

www.arrowvideo.com