Chapo Trap House - Movie Midset 04 Teaser - Invasion of The Body Snatchers

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Will, Hesse and Dan Boeckner review 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

So like, yeah, he sneaks into Becky's house through the basement and he like gets Becky and it's all very 1950s like sexual style, you know This is this how you have sex in movies and then like the next day, of course, we get the great scene of them She's making eggs and coffee for him at his house This is a way of communicating that sex has happened between two unmarried people And breakfast is getting made. That's right. And the Bella checks come in and interrupt them And they're like, hey, do you mind if we stay here for a few days and he's like, yes But I guess you can

They and the like so like he finds also like when he's neat when he sneaks into Becky's house He finds the double of Becky in the basement and like a box down there And he has to like wake her up and drag her out like to break the pod process and then like the next day Here's here's a here's a very important feature of all the pod movies Once you see what's going on and try to report it Everyone you tell about it like the police your neighbors the local authorities is already a pod and they begin the process of Gaslighting you like there's that's right. There's an explanation for everything and you know, you're gonna pick up the phone You're gonna pick up the phone

You're gonna dial the number for the operator you're gonna dial zero and the operator is gonna say I'm sorry all the lines Are busy right now. Can I direct you to the head pod person? Yeah And you know, this is a way of saying reality is socially constructed And if everyone around you is insane or not human then you in fact are the alien an insane one Yeah, and it's something I found like really strange with this movie compared to the 70s one is that They're a lot less ready to call the police in this movie like he's like let me call the police and instantly

The jack character is like no don't but like in the 70s one Which we'll get to Donald Sutherland at every single turn is like I need to call someone right now You call an authority figure. Do you think maybe that's cuz I know I know we're skipping ahead But that's cuz Sutherland himself is a bureaucrat who believes in sort of the function. Yeah Yeah, yeah, definitely But you know back in the 1950s like the next day Oh, like the town therapist and police sort of like take them through the night that they just experienced before and and sort of Calmly explain to them that like what you thought you saw was actually just you know, like a bunch of rags

Just a bunch of oil and benzene soaked rags In the 1950s was totally cool and normal to keep in your basement It's like it's so cool This reminded me so much of psycho the scene at the end because like the explanation makes no sense and leaves so much to be desired But like in this it's explicitly so like when he's like No, but I really did see it and the guy and the doctor is like you did it was there and you saw it It was definitely there, but it's not there. It's not real And and like and like this whole like a night like day after like he goes to his practice

Oh, and it's little Jimmy Grimaldi and he's there and he's like it's in the waiting room and he's like I love you mom I don't feel strange at all anymore. They're like, oh, well, okay I guess the value of my prescribed him Works and I like how like they're like all of them the Bella checks and Benel and Becky They're basically all convinced until the next night where they're like having a cook they're having to cook out You know they're having some cook out with the friends And they're like, okay, we can just go that we were all got a little bit freaked out But let's just go back to our normal style routine of drinking 10 martinis a night

Everything's everything's going to be normal. Oh, but wait. What's this in the greenhouse? It's some gross vaginal seed pod is getting its goop everywhere as it foams out and births some unholy fetus It's looks it's foaming and pulsating everywhere and then this isn't they're like, okay We were right the first time this is this is not normal Oh They're rubbing their eyes and going And then of course like then immediately they're like for fuck the local police We've got to call the FBI, you know, because you've got to go home when you've got a stitch on your neighbors

You call the FBI. Yeah, this is kind of a this is kind of the thing about this movie because it Ends to with the with the psychiatrist calling the FBI and it's just like if if you oh if you only knew what the FBI was doing Yeah Let's call J. Edgar Hoover. Yeah, we'll take care of this. Yeah Yeah, yeah, let's call. Let's call the people that project bluebird. They'll sort this out right away and then we get the scene of Kevin McCarthy taking a pitchfork to his double and to Becky's double which is like the whole the whole pod birthing scene for a movie in 1956 is like

Really it's pretty gross and like and graphic and it's all it's like I said, there's foam and goop everywhere It's all it's intensely sexual And then also like as Kevin McCarthy is like character gets more into Lovecraft mode and just like as like his hysteria escalates He just gets do we are and do we are yeah the way the sweat glistens on him in this movie is just like greasy greasy Fear sweat like seagull capture is like that, you know like that the barest outline of the way the light like light hits Like a face and profile in a dark room and then makes like every beat of sweat like glisten like sort of constellations in the night sky Yeah, the movie goes on the lighting in this movie is so well done. It's so good It's kind of actually some shots of

Fear sweated out protagonists provided me of like the best shots of Peter Lorre in M in Fritz. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like maybe maybe one of the first fear sweat Depictions on film. So I see you mentioned Sam Peckinpah as like, you know a comparable director to seagull Sam Peckinpah has a cameo in this movie. Yeah, he's the filling station guy. Yes Yeah, as Becky and Miles try to get out of town They they go to a gas station and then of course the gas station attendant just puts a pod in the trunk of their car And then yeah, they're like, okay. Well, we're hip to this trick. We've been here before Can't fool us and like he goes back to

Like like Becky's dad's house and sort of sneaks up on it and sees like a meeting of the pod people And like they come in and you hear a baby crying and they say is the baby asleep yet? Not now, but soon there will be no more tears and like oh my god. Yeah, the whole town is in on it. Yeah Yeah, like you said, it's over before it begins. It's there. It's a it's a losing battle from the start It's like, you know, like all their sanity points will be gone. Yeah And like, you know, they're the like for They have every reason to assume they're the last two human beings in the town of Santa Mira And they're all the runs they make it through his medical office and sort of spend the night there

But thank god they have a huge supply of uh Of, uh, of amphetamines, pharmaceutical grade amphetamines to keep them awake I have a new interpretation like a third way, maybe a third way of looking at this film It's like is it anti-McCarthite? Is it anti-communist? No, it's pro amphetamine and it is about the impending um Sort of like culture war between coming in the 1960s between For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com slash chopo traffic Pure fucking chemical speed

Yeah, and uh, there's a scene where um, Becky and Miles look out the window At this like, uh, sort of like normal morning scene of like strangers arriving on a bus at the bus station And they're sort of immediately set upon by the police and like I said this For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com slash chopo trap house