From CNN Interactive Associate Editor Jenna Milly
(CNN) -- Pod-like cocoons beget alien life and infect a small California town: This is exactly the kind of 1950s science-fiction movie plot, packed with conspiracy, aliens, paranoia and communist undertones, that will put the Red Scare back into your life.
The idea that soul-snatching extraterrestrials could take over the world was a perfect metaphor for how some Americans felt during the Cold War -- as though they were running for their lives as they tried to escape an evil and insidious communist infiltration.
The story unfolds as unwitting small-town doctor Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy, discovers his patients fraught with delusion and complaining that other townspeople are impostors.
Miles and love interest Becky Driscoll, played by Dana Wynter, stumble upon giant seed pods that replicate and then replace humans beings with alien life. The pair, embodying the values of democracy, free thought, rampant emotion and good faith, struggle to escape a town overrun by zombie-like "pod people."
The primary goal of these pod people is to convert all other humans into members of their emotionless army. After transformation, the "pod people" lack feelings of love, desire, ambition and faith, making life simple in their new communist-like classless society, where they work in blank-faced droves on communist collective-like pod farms.
Just as the zombies live among Miles and Becky, Americans feared that communists could live and work among them without being detected. No one would know who they were, but eventually they could rise to power.
The film can also be interpreted as a mockery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's quest for conformity when he attempted to rid America of Communist Party members in the early 1950s.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is best watched in its vintage black-and-white medium alone in your living room in the dark with plenty of pillows to hide behind for those spooky pod-hatching scenes.
For those who seek intellectual analysis and discussion, see the film with a friend, then test your ability to pick apart the movie for metaphors of communist conspiracy. Discussing Cold War paranoia and the possibility of alien invasion may spark a heated debate, but going to bed at night may be your biggest challenge. Who might be waiting for you to fall asleep?
