by Juneko Robinson
in Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade eds. John Marmysz and Scott A. Lukas, Lexington, 2008.
Abstract: Fear, anxiety, dread, passion, death, and human finitude, along with freedom, personal responsibility, and... more
Abstract: Fear, anxiety, dread, passion, death, and human finitude, along with freedom, personal responsibility, and the possibility of individual transcendence, are central concerns not only of many films, but also of much of Western philosophy in general, and of existentialism in particular. They are recurring preoccupations precisely because they are an inextricable part of the human psyche. For this reason, we collectively revisit these themes in films again and again. But while all horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films share some, if not all, of these concerns, some have been remade because they are particularly effective in their ability to depict and articulate these deep-seated concerns.
Having appeared in no less than four English-language film incarnations, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers series is a prime example of a horror/sci-fi story that we are drawn to again and again precisely because it speaks to these gnawing, existential concerns. Since the first film debuted over fifty years ago, much as been written about the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Commentators typically discuss how the film represents the decline of community, modern alienation, provincialism, a growing distrust of authority, science and the medical community, and fears of the communist threat, and of McCarthyism run amuck.
However, while each of these views has merit what ties all of these various analyses together is that they all stem from our most deep-seated and universal fear; that of the self dissolution that comes with death, of which the fear of inundation, of coerced transformation, of being absorbed into something larger than ourselves, and the loss of self-identity are merely variations.
Humans are apparently alone in their ability to anticipate their own deaths. From the moment of birth, we are in the process of dying. This awareness is so pervasive; forming such an integral part of the human psyche that even metaphorical death evokes the real thing.
Metaphorical death, such as tremendous personal transformation can be experienced as a threat to our physical and mental integrity. While personal transformation can be desirable, we are highly ambivalent about it. Such changes, even if for the better, will result in a fundamental alteration of the self. We fear we will no longer recognize ourselves. In the Invasion films, these fears manifest themselves at times of tremendous uncertainty; from the anxiety about conformity and loss of vitality in the '50s, to the political cynicism and self-analysis of the '70s, from Gulf War I and fears about emerging viruses of the early '90s, to the collective American trauma of September 11.
Each of the Invasion films plays with these fears in slightly different ways, each reflecting the particular anxieties of their times, but underlying all of them is an awareness that we are our own worst enemies and that our loved ones and beloved institutions are instrumental to our self-destruction.
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