Warner Bros. Buried Abel Ferrara's Studio Horror Gem — SkimNews
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- Warner Bros. offered Abel Ferrara the chance to direct the third "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" adaptation in the early 1990s, following his cult hit "King of New York," making the 1993 "Body Snatchers" his sole major studio film.
- "Body Snatchers" is set on a military base where the alien infection has already spread — a setting the studio imposed on Ferrara, but one the source argues adds inescapable terror absent from the 1956, 1978, and 2007 adaptations.
- Ferrara clashed with Warner Bros. throughout production over visual style and test screenings, as documented in his memoir "Scene," yet unlike Don Siegel's 1956 version or the 2007 Wachowski/McTeigue reshoot, Ferrara won his most important creative battles.
- Warner Bros. released "Body Snatchers" with zero publicity after Cannes raves, apparently out of accumulated bad blood, and the film never found the audience its reviews suggested it deserved.
- "Body Snatchers" gave Ferrara roughly a dozen times his usual budget, and the source says every dollar is on screen in Spielbergian-scale blocking, camera choreography by cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, and editing by Anthony Redman.
- Vinegar Syndrome has released a 4K UHD edition of "Body Snatchers" featuring a new interview with Ferrara in which he reflects on satisfying commercial expectations while honoring his own auteurist instincts.
Why it matters: Decades after Warner Bros. dumped it into theaters with no publicity despite Cannes raves, Abel Ferrara's 'Body Snatchers' gets a second chance via Vinegar Syndrome's new 4K UHD release. The reissue gives horror fans and Ferrara completists the rare opportunity to evaluate the source's case for it as one of the era's best studio horror films — and the most expensive Ferrara ever made.
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