Hailed by the critics of Cahiers du Cinema as one of the great Hollywood auteurs, director Don Siegel is perhaps best know for his campy 1956 sci-fi classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. As the intrepid town physician notes at the beginning of the film, something is terribly wrong with the inhabitants of Santa Mira, California. Physically, they seem normal enough, but their personalities are undeniably strange—they’re listless, emotionless, almost drone-like. Given that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is in many ways a B-movie genre film, it is not surprising that the cause of this bizarre phenomenon involves all the usual suspects: extraterrestrial infiltration, mass mind-control, and the misuse of atomic energy (all hallmarks of the Red Scare). Unintentionally hilarious at times, the film also has its moments of genuine creepiness.