its source novel, Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers, this third go-round for the perpetually 
disturbing story of people being gradually replaced while they sleep was an unexpected move for director Abel Ferrara. Having enjoyed a major indie comeback at the start of the '90s with Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, Ferrara had certainly explored horror early in his career but had never attempted science fiction before. Producer Robert H. Solo, who had overseen the classic 1978 version, went through several hands to get the script to its final stage, first with Larry Cohen and then the usual pairing of Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli with elements retained from all of them. The end result was a bright spot in a famously dire period for genre films, and though it barely played theatrically, this has since become regarded as a worthy and often highly effective twist on the material.
rapport with pilot Tim (The Lost Boys' 
Wirth) while her father works with higher ups on the base (including R. Lee Ermey and Forest Whitaker) to unravel a weird chain of events. Most obviously, people's personalities are shifting dramatically while their friends and loved ones claim that they've been replaced by an emotionless imitation. Of course, we all know it's only a matter of time before things go from bad to worse...
official soundtrack of any kind was never released. In keeping with the pattern of this story turning up every decade or two, a fourth (and to date 
final) version was eventually made in 2007 as The Invasion, which dispensed with the body snatching angle entirely. Seen today, Ferrara's film carries an extra chill as it feels most in tune with the increasingly disorienting, callous global political climate and similarly ambiguous recent variations on the concept like Pluribus.
image in the frame -- and if you're familiar with the faintly bleachy, soft look from past releases, it's gratifying to see how much more they manage to pull out of the source here. As usual the UHD features HDR-compatible Dolby Vision that makes those blues and reds in particular 
really sing. The theatrical 2.0 surround and 5.1 options are both here in DTS-HD MA options with English SDH subtitles, while Alexandra Heller-Nicholas provides a new audio commentary focusing on Ferrara and how the film fits in with his larger looks at humanity while also riffing on points from Brad Stevens' book on the filmmaker and drawing connections to Capgras syndrome. Four new interview featurettes are all worth watching and tie in with each other a great deal: "Who Are the Good Guys?" (13m21s) with Ferrara, "The First Cut is Mine" (17m29s) with editor Anthony Redman, "Adults in the Room" (12m37s) with second unit director Phil Neilson, and "The Brass Ring" (24m53s) with Delia. Between them you get plenty of stories about hopping aboard Ferrara productions before this at various points, the decision to do this film despite two very familiar earlier versions, the hook in the Finney source that made it possible, the challenges of working for a major studio (including bringing in Dede Allen to supervise the editing), the Buddhist underpinning of the invaders this time, and positive thoughts on the end result (with Redman dissing the '78 one by comparison). The trailer and a 2m6s gallery are also included, plus the limited edition comes with a 40-page book featuring rewarding essays by Willow Catelyn MaClay ("No One Like You Left" appraising Tilly's remarkable performance), Glenn Kenny ("Who Are You," threading the connections and variations between the big three versions), and Elena Lazic ("Same As It Ever Was," honing in on the controversial decision to set the story in the highly conformist environment of a military base). 
