J Hoberman introduces Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Whether read as an allegory about McCarthyism or a condemnation of American mass consumerism, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the most chilling sci-fi films of the 1950s.

The movie that gave us the phrase “pod people” depicts the infiltration of a small California town by extraterrestrial seeds that replace the townspeople with identical, emotionless duplicates. (80 mins., 35mm)

Stay after the film for a book signing with Hoberman in the Wexner Center Store. This is the first of three screenings suggested by Hoberman’s book, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War. Storm Warning (Stuart Heisler, 1951) follows on at 7 PM on Friday, October 21 and Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (Norman Foster, 1955) screens on Saturday, October 22 at 2 PM.