WEIRDLAND: VIVARIUM AND THE BODY SNATCHERS

Monday, April 13, 2020

VIVARIUM AND THE BODY SNATCHERS

Based on Jack Finney’s 1954 serialized novel in Colliers magazine, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was first brought to the big screen in 1956 by director Don Siegel with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter as the protagonists in peril. In the Kaufman's version Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) the story begins from the point of view of the alien migration itself. Landing in the shadow of the iconic Transamerica Pyramid building (at the time, Transamerica Corporation owned United Artists) under the guise of undetectable spores and flowers, the beginning of the assimilation of the human race occurs remarkably fast. The invaders creep in as we sleep, forming a duplicate human in a pod, transferring thoughts and memories, then wiping away all sense of individuality and throwing away the shriveled husk of the original body. 

Lorcan Finnegan‘s Vivarium is about the reverse of the idyllic 50s suburbia turned into a nightmarish trap in the 21st Century. Gemma and Tom’s situation begins to unravel. All their escape plans fail but someone is delivering boxes of food and supplies, meaning if there’s a way in, there has to be a way out. But they’re not even close to finding it when their next delivery box brings the biggest challenge yet: a baby boy, presentably human but utterly otherworldly in his biology and behavior. Finnegan makes good work escalating the dread in the second part (more bleak and punishing), swapping laughs for gasps during surprising moments of cruelty. Vivarium leans hard on the tradition of absurdism, staging a suburbian ‘No Exit’ with moments of Kafkaesque horror that dig into the meeting point between cosmic and intimate terrors, from the slow exploration of the boy’s mysterious inhumanity to the existential dread of being stuck in an eternal cycle you can’t control. 

Another common thread between Invasion of Body Snatchers and Vivarium is the resilience of the romantic relationship between Miles & Becky and Tom and Gemma, although Miles survives in the 1956 Don Siegel's classic. It’s fascinating to see Imogen Poots’ modulations as Gemma is at first petrified in disbelief at, then at the threshold of brainwashed by, her conundrum son. Her final snark as she confronts the reality of awful events makes Poots an ideal Final Girl material. “I’m not your fucking mother” is the most badass kiss-off line in any recent horror movie. Vivarium might be dismissed as a deeply cynical view of suburban life, but its take on the strength of relationships is ultimately uplifting.

Metaphors: Besides the “the suburban trap is hell” trope, there are indeed aliens involved. They can bend the rules of the world they've created. They know they have to involve humans in their plans or their offspring won't survive. The aliens have no conscious, they are truly non feeling sociopath beings. Like any insect predator that hides in wait. The bulb neck when he does the impersonation, the walking like a crab under the sidewalk, the alien screeching, the way the clouds change when they turn onto the street from stormy to those lame little puffy clouds, obviously, they get brought to the trap. Tom and Gemma should have been able to recognize this kid was an alien and use a lot more psychology on it to escape. If you can trick that kid into telling you what it saw then you could trick it into taking you out of there. Ultimately, it is an alien invasion/parasite movie.

Maybe it is a metaphor for how hidden black psyop control groups are invading our minds and lives through mass media (education, news, entertainment and social networks). They have us trapped in a fake world of brainwashing we can never find our way out of. The child/monster is the media and the unwilling/unwitting parents are the average victims of our present society controlled and trapped by Main Stream Media (MSM). Who built that "virtual suburbia world", these aliens who are driven by copying human interactions? Indeed it is a hint what these aliens have created new dimensions through which they intend to take over the human field. Imagine if you could 3D print a whole world using nanites. Not unlike a "holideck" on Star Trek, you can even drive a car into it. If aliens were to invade in this way, they would have technology we don't. Such as, nanotech that can 3D print and they could arrange molecular structures on the fly. As we see in the movie they created a solidified whole looped world based on a software engineered program.

Also, notice how this "suburbian world" is painted almost all the same color to save on resources. Not unlike a video game, you "re-use" everything you can. Shapes, sizes, colors etc, to cut down on the taxation of processing power.

*The cuckoo bird implants it's eggs into another birds nest. A reference to what the aliens are doing to grow their own invasion force.

*The realtor alien's name tag they hand off is "Martin". Very close to "Martian". Suggesting these creatures might be from a planet similar to Mars.

*When the Older Boy bags up the dead alien he is replacing, he easily folds it into a very small package that fits in a drawer. With almost no lifting effort because it is so lite. The drawer doesn't buckle, it slides easily. The true form of these aliens is much smaller and lighter than humans. Or are these alien robots that are retractable through 3D printed nanites?

*When ´Gemma crawls under the sidewalk she falls into many other traps other people are in. This hints to many other aliens being raised by humans. The aliens are preparing for invasion.

*The other houses are lit in red, green or blue lighting. As if, they are other dimensions entirely.

*Clouds change from real to fake when they turn onto the road.

*The aliens are heartless, cold and calculating. Like an insect, or spider that tends their trap and discard their prey's shell when they are done with them.

*When the alien is shoveling the dirt into the hole the top of his head begins to become pixelated with white squares, but only for a moment. This is another one of veiled hints this is a computer generated simulation. But, not only the world has a shroud of graphics, but so does the alien itself. Its body is very much different than the human form we see. The grass then fixes itself instantly.

*Things can disappear or appear because it is nanite 3D printed computer generated.

*The TV was teaching and communicating with the alien/robot through encryption codes.

*Tom finds a body at the bottom of the pit he dug. This means it is not uncommon for people to dig in that exact spot. He inadvertently dug their graves! It made seem scripted and intentional. Mind controlled.

*They could have been mind controlled like a MKA Ultra project. Or drugged by a clandestine government agency. Did you notice they slept a lot? Seemed they were always kind of sickly and out of shape.

*These may not have been "aliens". They might have been robots doing this job for aliens. After all what advanced race would risk their own people for war casualties when they could just nanite 3D print their own callous machine to do all the work. Source: screenrant.com

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