The Puppet Masters (1994)
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Dr. Andrew Nivens and his team has been summoned to a UFO landing area – it seems the foreign object has crash landed in Des Moines. No one is denying it and that is what makes it so odd. So being a special branch of government investigators, they take a look but immediately they realize it isn't just an alien landing, its an invasion. These aliens are more like parasites, which can take control of a human's nervous system. Once they grab a hold of you, you are under their control. The aliens reproduce at an astounding rate and don't seem capable of being stopped. The closer Andrew gets, the more he begins to learn. But that learning comes with a price as the aliens start to take over his team, including his son Sam. The team begins to get smaller and smaller, and soon even the army is under alien possession. There is only one chance for survival - kill the host!
Overall - Movie: Very much like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" versus "ID4." You have the body snatching by the aliens (very much like the leeches from “Night of the Creeps”) and the effect of being able to injure the host and thereby kill the millions of spores running on its commands. Enjoy Julie Warner and Donald Sutherland -- the movie has a decent plot and some good effects. In fact, it even takes the unique path of allowing one person who had been possessed to be “un-possessed,” only to then use that “ex-possession” against the alien later on -- yeah, not extremely unique, but in horror films, how many people switch sides more than once? Ever see a zombie go back to human form later on? Enjoyable film. Overall – Book: Robert Heinlein’s book is quite good, written in the early 1950’s. The film really remains close to the book through the first few chapters but the book really drags out the human possession by the aliens. It veers off (from the film's plot) after Sam has had the alien taken off his back and he has been allowed to go back to work. He finds the woman of his dreams, gets the alien placed back onto him for interrogation and taken off again too. The President believes that the aliens exist (called “Titans” after the Saturn moon they seemed to have come from) but has trouble getting everyone in the country to believe they exist until he shows the nation a few congressmen with the aliens attached. Soon the entire country is scouring every spot of each human and animal for the alien creatures but the creatures fight back just as effectively by cutting off communications through their hosts. Soon the country will be separated into safe and unsafe regions. Eventually everyone will be required to go nude or almost nude to show no creatures live on them and the final battle will be when they learn the secret to defeating the parasites. Comparison: The Faculty meets Outbreak |
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