An allegory of totalitarianism in which alien elements transform average small-town Americans into blindly obedient “pods” that look exactly like the bodies they have replaced. Don Siegel's direction is tight and incisive: in preying on basic human fears (such as the fear of falling asleep), this story of one man's desperate resistance to creeping conformity is as frightening as a paranoid LSD trip. In the opinion of many critics this is the best science fiction film ever made.