Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 13. June 11 1979

"They're Here!"

"They're Here!"

In the film people get replaced overnight by 'pods', a plantlike alien life form that perfectly duplicates human beings, producing exact copies of individuals. The pod people, though, have no emotions, and can experience none of the feelings we think of as being characteristically human. This dehumanizing spreads like a malignant cancer through the small town closest to the area infected by the alien spores. In their desperate attempt to warn the outside world, the few people alerted to the threat can trust no-one, not even their own relatives or spouses. In Siegel's original ending, they are unsuccessful. In the released version (the one you may have seen on TV a while back), the outside world is warned in time, and we assume that good triumphs.

The story works like a charm on both its sci-fi adventure and social commentary levels, and so I had high hopes for Philip Kaufman's new version. But I was disappointed. Make no mistake about it: there are lots of very good things, and some superb action scenes, in the movie. The special effects are impressive, the 'faults' in the original are ironed out, and Kaufman makes some clever jokes — especially one involving the hero of the original film, now nearly 25 years older, still running through the streets yelling "They're here!"

But something's missing. Except for a few scenes shortly after the interval, I never really felt for the protagonists. In Siegel's film, despite their often cliched dialogue and the total dependence of the heroine on the hero, I did identify strongly with the characters. It's largely a question of tone, I think; or ambeince, or whatever. Or maybe it's just the fact that the new film follows the plot of the old one so slavishly, that for anyone who's seen the original there's precious little suspense.

Even so, it's still very noticeable that the movie's best lines, and even camera set-ups, are lifted straight out of Siegel.

A shame, because where Kaufman does new things, they're often very good. Back in 1956, the good guys, pretending to be zombie-like pod people, get given away by a dog. Here the same thing happens, but the dog's a real surprise — a mutant that has resulted, unpredictably, from earlier action in the film. Things like that make the film worth seeing, so don't let me put you off, especially if you've never seen the first one.

But if you haven't, and you get a chance to, go.

Paul Hagan.