The novel cannot avoid all stereotypes, though. Bennell makes particularly incisive observations related to race and gender. He’s also much more progressive in the novel, which I didn’t expect from a male character created in the 1950s. Miles Bennell, who is even more cheeky and self-centered in the novel than he is in the film. The novel has more room for exposition than the film, and in general this additional information is really interesting. The film has its only silliness, in the shape of a framing device tacked on when the studio decided the ending was too dark, but what I view as the film’s real ending is absolutely bone-chilling. To be honest, the book’s climax seems a little silly, and it’s much less horrifying than the fate of the main characters by the end of the film. About halfway through, details and plot points begin to diverge slightly, leading to a different ending.
The first half is essentially the same between novel and film. Miles Bennell and Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll. What surprised me about the 1955 novel was how faithfully it was followed by the 1956 film adaptation starring Kevin McCarthy as Dr. You know the story: seed pods from space arrive in a small town on Earth and begin replacing people while they sleep.
There’s this moment after watching one of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies (there are four and I’ll have more to say about them later on in this review) when I think to myself “I really should read the original novel by Jack Finney.” Well, after watching all four adaptations again recently, I finally read the book, and what a surprise it turned out to be.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
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