HBO Max Adds One of the Best Movie Remakes Ever

One of the best movie remakes is here on HBO Max, and you’re next… to watch it, that is.

For June, the streaming service just added Philip Kaufman’s classic 1978 sci-fi horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

It’s based on Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, which was previously adapted into a movie in 1956 also titled Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Both films center around a doctor who discovers that alien plant spores has invaded the Earth, and they grow in pods all around us. When each pod is full-grown, they take on the traits, memories, and personalities of the nearest sleeping human, becoming a “duplicate;” the duplicates, however, are completely void of all human emotion.

While the 1956 film is a classic in its own right — and gave way to the slang term “pod people,” which was the 20th-century equivalent of kids today calling people “NPCs” — the 1978 version is meaner, smarter, and bigger than the original could’ve ever hope for, and is now known as one of the greatest horror films ever made.

Part of that is studio meddling in the first film, as Allied Artists required the writers to change the ending to one where the FBI magically saves the day at the end.

Another big reason the remake is better is that it goes from small-town America to San Francisco. In the first film, residents just happened not to notice everyone being snatched up. In the remake’s California-based setting, everyone is too self-involved and self-important to notice their neighbors and friends disappearing, making for a much more incisive social commentary.

The original Body Snatchers is free on Roku and Kanopy and available on Prime Video. The remake is on HBO Max today.