The movies’ first whack at Jack Finney’s 1954 serialized novel remains the best. When alien life forms try to take over the planet by replacing us with automaton look-alikes – walking vegetables that literally grow in pods – it’s up to a small-town doctor (an increasingly hysterical Kevin McCarthy) to fight the power. Director Don Siegel takes an unfussy approach that isn’t pushy but is still chilling. When McCarthy’s doctor looks out of his office window and sees his friends and neighbors mutely converging on the town square, he’s essentially witnessing the dawn of the modern zombie era.
