Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
Rating: 15
Warnings: Mild Gore

A classic from 1978, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has aged spectacularly. Despite the fact that most people already know the ending, or at least seen a very spoileriffic screenshot, the tension and suspense build continually. 

As someone very dissatisfied with the modern horror technique of piling more jump scares and gore without anything to actually keep me up at night, this satisfies. The sci-fi element adds to the horror, as it's not the exact scenario but the unknown possibilities that are terrifying. Horror lies in the metaphor; who doesn't find the idea that the people close to you are impostors scary?

There's some mild gore, but this film is from the 70s and the only human blood is a mild nosebleed. An impostor human is killed, their appearance and gore clearly non human.

The camera lingers on shots of water and walking passerbys, giving the uncertainty a fourth-wall breaking element. The characters are realistic and believable, and as time goes on the tension rises as the likelihood of their survival looks bleaker and bleaker. There is a touch of romance, which feels shoehorned in as the characters had seemed platonic friends up to that point. Genuine romance is shown in between the married characters, and the friendships all four main characters share gives a feeling of reality that the crisis has interrupted.

With its alien invasion, impostor, and zombie-virus-like themes, the horror elements work well today, although the setting, visuals and botanical sci-fi is dated. At first glance, it has a downer ending, but some interesting positives can be found in the survival of characters to that point and ambiguity implied by a few scenes leading to it. While violence and jump scares are barely a factor and how scary it is depends on the viewer, this film deserves a lot of modern respect. Find it online, as classics like this are films everyone should see at least once in their life.