What We Fear From the ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’

In 1954, it was a novel. Now it’s a handful of films. Still scary?

Jack Finney was an American novelist, and his famous story, The Body Snatchers, is archetypally American. In a culture that so heavily promotes individualism, the ultimate terror is losing one’s own personality.

The Book

Detail from the first edition of “Body Snatchers.”