The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

By: Jack Finney / Narrated By: Kristoffer Tabori

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Given how old this is? Oooooh, a Classic that aged well!

My dad was ALL into movies, took his entire brood, all six of our family, to the theaters many Many MANY times. And one of my absolute favorites was The Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Jeff Goldblum and the truly TERRIFIC Donald Sutherland!

So I was expecting this, the audiobook story, to follow along the exact lines, leaving me nothing to get all surprised about. Ha, thought I to myself, I know how it all unfolds, I know the end; certainly nothing to get excited about given Mr. Sutherland’s asTOUNding final scene in the movie.

What I wasn’t expecting was how impressive Kristoffer Tabori’s narration was going to be. He is apparently, the young pup of the man who directed the first of Hollywood’s treatment of the book (And listen to the narrator interview at the end to where he pretty much says that his dad single-handedly made this a Classic, forget about the grand writing and crafting. Son has PLENty o’ pride in dearest Papa!). Seriously, not since Blatty’s narration for his The Exorcist have I heard such a rousing performance of “dated” horror. TOTALLY outclasses Mia Farrow’s rendition of Rosemary’s Baby. People In The Know CAN do a wondrous job, so huzzah for a gritty performance here!

Tabori has gruff tones and as our hero, Miles, comes to grips with the dawning horror that is occurring in the placid town of Mill Valley, California, Tabori uses snide tones (Miles has no patience for those who are complaining that Dear Uncle Just Isn’t Himself, Truly), uses nostalgic tones (Why didn’t he see that his Old Squeeze was a fantastic woman -BEFORE- all of this, the end of the world, hit the fan?!), and he uses Madder ‘N Hell tones whilst he’s on the run and perhaps can take as many down with him before they, the Pod People, take him out.

The story? General Practitioner, Miles, is starting to hear stuff about people Not Being Right. At first, he refers all of them to the local psychiatrist, cuz obviously it’s they who are the problem. But danged if he doesn’t get the supreeeeeme Wake Up Call when a couple of friends discover a body in their basement, a body that is completely unmarred by the markings of Life, wrinkles, scars, even fingerprints. After discovering that The Body starts becoming her husband, the wife in this couple has them running SHRIEKING back to Miles’s place, fearful as all get-out.

Soon, these four, the couple and he and his Old Squeeze are fighting forces out of their control, and it’s every man for himself as the entire township starts being peopled by people who seeeem perfectly like their Originals, but who DEFinitely are NOT them. There’s no emotion there, no interests, nothing huuuuuman.

Now all this seems like an old trope, but keep in mind that this was The FIRST in the line o’ tropes. Author Jack Finney did a truly remarkable job in pacing and in upping the Creep Factor. Yeh, okay, so like the dialogue is dated, and some of this is sooooo Not Current Day PC (One simply does NOT joke about changing their general medical practice to start to do abortions, simply not done!). And, gosh, don’t even get me started about how atrocious I think it was for Hollywood to make their own ending, cuz I can just see how modern authors rightly bemoan having their work taken over. That said, however? Holy crud, the 70’s version with Donald Sutherland doing the honors for part of the last few frames was AWEsome!

Worthy of a Listen this Halloween of 2021, when the whole world seems to have been taken over by Pod People. Really! Who HAVE we all become?!

Check your neighbor’s basements! Check their garages! FIND those PODS!!!