Body Snatchers is a 1993 American science fiction horror film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Christine Elise, R. Lee Ermey, and Forest Whitaker.

It is loosely based on the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, with a screenplay by Nicholas St. John, Stuart Gordon, and Dennis Paoli.

The plot is centered around the discovery that people working at a military base in Alabama are being replaced by perfect physical imitations grown from plantlike pods.

Meanwhile, while examining soil samples, Steve is approached by medical officer Major Collins, who asks him about psychological effects, particularly narcophobia (the fear of sleep), and their possible relation to toxication of the environment.

When Andy wakes up and enters his mother's room, Carol's body crumbles to dust, while a naked soulless double emerges from the closet.

The following day, Steve witnesses an accident while he and some military members are in hazmat suits and sees an injury on a soldier that makes no sense.

That night, Marti is nearly "taken over" by a duplicate emerging from the giant pods when she fell asleep during a bath but she wakens and rips the tendrils from her face.

Tim destroys the trucks filled with pods with the helicopter's rockets, while Marti confesses her profound hatred in a voice-over narration, thereby hinting at a loss of humanitarian quality.

We did the best we could; without telling the guys at Warner Bros, I was holding onto the original story, minus the narration....We had a lot of money and we were out in the middle of nowhere, so it was in the editing that it went south.

Roger Ebert considered it superior to the previous adaptations of Finney's famous novel and in his review gave it four stars out of four, praising it for psychological realism and social criticism.

Ebert stated "as sheer moviemaking, it is skilled and knowing, and deserves the highest praise you can give a horror film: It works".

[6] Blake Davis of KFOR Channel 4 News said of the film: "One of the creepiest and most overlooked horror movies made in the past decade, featuring a strong, scary turn by Meg Tilly".

[7][8] However, some critics panned the film — Richard Harrington of The Washington Post'' (February 18, 1994) called it "a soulless replica of Don Siegel's 1956 model and Philip Kaufman's 1978 update".

[9] Owen Gleiberman noted in Entertainment Weekly (February 11, 1994), "[the] notion of a military base as a symbol of mindless conformity isn't exactly revelatory, and the characters remain sketchy and underdeveloped.

The site's critics' consensus states: "Body Snatchers may not topple previous adaptions, but it boasts an effective sense of dread and strong characterizations.

"[11] The largest difference in this version of the story is that it takes place on an Army base in Alabama, unlike a small California town in the original novel and the first adaptation filmed in 1956, or in San Francisco like in the 1978 remake.

[13] In many ways, the film tells an especially vicious coming-of-age narrative as Marti's family is destroyed and at the end all she has left is her boyfriend Tim.

[16] Knöppler argued that the film seemed to be a critique of modern American life as the pod people succeed in taking over the Army base because of the military culture of conformity and succeed in replacing families because families are conformist, suggesting it was internal weakness already present that allowed their triumph and the pod invasion only intensifies preexisting trends.

[13] Some critics see the character of Steve as the "beleaguered male" archetype popular in 1990s films trying to hold together his family which is fractured first by Marti's rebellion and then by Carol being replaced.

[19] The Army base is a closed community with a fixed hierarchy and a highly conformist culture, and the film seems to suggest that "...the military mentality makes it impossible to distinguish those who are professional soldiers from those who are pods".

[19] One critic sums up the film's attitude as: "It is perhaps an oversimplification to say Body Snatchers treats America's armed forces with the complete and total contempt they deserve, but to a large degree it is true".

[19] Throughout the film, the soldiers at the base appear both conformist and generally threatening, and their faces are usually obscured by dim lighting, limiting their individuality.

[21] Unlike the previous versions, intellectuals are portrayed more favorably with the scientist Steve and Dr. Collins sounding the alarm while the main spokesman for the pod people is General Platt.

[23] In the first and second films, the main spokesmen for the pod people were men who previously been psychiatrists, suggesting a fear of psychiatry with its power to mold minds.

[22] However, despite the film's anti-militarism, the conclusion of the film where Tim and Marti wage all-out war against the pod people which Marti justifies in her narration as being "only human" suggests a military response is the only rational one to the invasion of the pod people and appears to be imply that war is a natural part of the human condition.