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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - August 17th

"THE INVASION" released in 2007

In this fourth film adaptation of the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, The Invasion follows psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) who slowly begins to notice strange behavioral changes in her patients, and then her friends, and even her ex-husband Tucker (Jeremy Northam). As paranoia turns to fear, Bennell struggles to save her young son Oliver (Jackson Bond) with the help of her friend Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig).

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After the space shuttle Patriot crashes on Earth, CDC director Tucker Kaufman (Northam) is called in to investigate the crash and an fungus-like alien life-form that has been discovered on the remaining parts scattered over US territory. At about the same time, Tucker's ex-wife Carol Bennell (Kidman) begins to notice strange behaviour in her patients, in particular Wendy Lenk (Veronica Cartwright) who starts to rant how her husband "is not her husband". At a neighborhood Halloween party, Carol's son Oliver (Bond) finds a "skin" on a partier which is initially believed to be costume make-up, though Carol speculates that the skin may be an organism connected to reports of a fast-spreading flu. Taking a sample to her friend Dr Ben Driscoll (Craig) to have it checked. Both Driscoll  and his friend Dr. Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright), a biologist, discover how the spore takes control of the brain during REM sleep, rendering the infected people emotionless and detached, but still extremely deady. Driscoll and Galeano also find that people who had brain affecting illnesses, such as encephalitis or ADEM, are immune to the spore because their previous illnesses prevents the spore from "latching on" to the brain matter. Discovering that Tucker was one of the first to be infected by the aliens and has been using the resources of the CDC to infect people by distributing it as a "vaccine", Carol saves Oliver from Tucker, and flees with Driscoll into the city. Pursued by more transformed people, Carol learns that Oliver is among those who are immune (because of the ADEM he had as a young child), and desperately tries to get Oliver to a base outside Baltimore where other scientists attempting to find a cure for the alien virus could use his blood to fight the alien virus.

Carol: Something's happening. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it. Have you noticed anything?
Ben: I have.

Top:   Dr Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) starts to see strange behaviour in people;

Above:   Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) may hold the key to discovering the source of the infection

Warner Bros. hired screenwriter Dave Kajganich in early 2004 to write a script that would serve as a remake of the 1956 science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with Joel Silver producing. Originally intended as a remake, Kajganich instead crafted a different enough story for the studio to see the project as an original conception, with Kajganich describing the story was to reflect contemporary times, saying, "You just have to look around our world today to see that power inspires nothing more than the desire to retain it and to eliminate anything that threatens it." Thus the film, whose original title Invasion of the Body Snatchers was shortened to Invasion due to Kajganich's different concept, was changed once more to The Visiting so it would not be confused with ABC's TV series Invasion. In mid 2005, German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment and Downfall) was attached to helm the project, his first English-language film.

In August 2005, Nicole Kidman was cast to star in the film, receiving a salary of close to $17 million, with Daniel Craig being cast later that same month (incidentally, while filming in Baltimore, Craig got the call from Barbara Broccoli informing him he won the role of James Bond). Actors Jeffrey Nortyham, Jeffrey Wright, Josef Sommer (as Dr. Henryk Belicec) Celia Weston (as Ludmilla Belicec), Roger Rees (playing Yorish Kagonavichand), and young debut actor Jackson Bond were later added to the cast. Original Invasion of the Body Snatchers star Veronica Cartright (who played the character of Nancy Bellicec) was also cast in the remake with a small part as one of Carol's paranoid patients, Wendy Lenk.

Tucker: I don't understand your resistance, Carol. You get people pills to make their lives better. How is that so different from what we're doing?

Top:   Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam) is one of the first to be infected;

Above:   One of the transformed "people" tries to infect Carol

Filmed over 45 days on location in Baltimore, director Hirschbiegel used minimal visual effects, with no need for greenscreen work, and shot from odd camera angles and claustrophobic spaces to increase tension in the film. While filming at the Chilean Embassy in Washington D.C., Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig were to drive a white SUV to the entrance, stop the car and allow valets to park it (all during heavy rain effects). Kidman however forgot to place the car in park and as she got out it began to roll down the hill. Craig swooped in from the passenger side and dove at the car, hitting the emergency brake and stopping the disaster from proceeding. Wrapping in early 2006, Hirschbiegel began editing the picture, and, in October 2006, the title was again changed back to The Invasion due to the cancellation of the ABC TV series.

The studio, however, was unhappy with Hirschbiegel's results and hired the The Matrix's creators Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski to rewrite the film and assist with additional shooting. The studio later hired director James McTeigue to perform re-shoots that would cost over $10 million, although McTeigue was uncredited for his work on the film. There was also a major on-set accident during the 17-day reshoot, when Nicole Kidman was involved in an accident while riding with others in a picture car mounted on trailer being towed by a camera truck rig. While filming a stunt in downtown Los Angeles, the truck took a turn too wide, slid on wet pavement, and collided with a light standard. Several stunt artists on the picture car were injured in the accident with Kidman breaking several ribs. She was brought to the hospital as a precaution, but was able to return to the set the next day.

Man: You can fool them.
Carol: What?
Man: Don't show emotion, then they can't tell who's who.

Top:   Carol learns how to blend in among the transformed people;

Above:   Carol's car is swarmed by an infected mob!

With release prints being delivered to theaters with the fake title 'Human Beast', The Invasion was released to generally negative reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the fourth, and the least, of the movies made from Jack Finney's classic science fiction novel." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that it was "a soulless rehash...The movie isn't terrible; it's just low-rent and reductive." Joanne Kaufman of The Wall Street Journal added, "With all the shoot-outs, the screaming, the chases, collisions and fireballs, there isn't much time for storytelling." The Invasion was considered a box office-bomb, grossing only $40 million against a $65 million budget. Interestingly enough, The Invasion was released just under a month behind The Asylum's mockbuster film Invasion of the Pod People.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   19%