Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Filming Location

Visit the quaint California town of Sierra Madre, aka. Santa Mira in Don Siegel's 1956 orig. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. See the square where the alien seed pods are distributed and where Kevin McCarthy's doctor's clinic is situated in the horror/sci-fi classic...

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Filming
• shooting
• location
• Invasion
• of
• the
• Body
• Snatchers
• 1956
• movie
• landmark
• behind
• scenes
• Sierra
• Madre
• Santa

[chuckfan1]

Nice job, but would be better, more comparison if you shot from the same camera angle.

[locationpix]

Hi there! Thx for your interest and comment. Good advice, but I have to add that we were just driving through the town of Sierra Madre - hadn't prepared a thing, hadn't seen the movie for some time. So my shots were 100% improvised...

[gleambot]

Thanks, locationpix. You saved me a trip to Sierra Madre, where I used to work 2 decades ago, to find the town center of "Santa Mira". I absolutely love this brilliant movie. The remakes don't even come close - they don't get the "normalcy" of the people right - the way people act normal, but are not normal - the psychology of the film. The music score is fully committed to frightening reality that we live in a world of political and social conformity in which nobody in America fights back.

[locationpix]

Hi there, I just realized that I seem to have missed your nice comment. Thanks for posting it. And yes, S.M. is a great little and fulfilled a childhood wish to see that familiar square...

[MrJimddddd]

Though the square in Sierra Madre and the Medical Building across the street stood in for Santa Mira in the original The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, most of the film was actually shot in Hollywood, including the alley in back of the Medical Building; some of the hallway shots; the houses of Miles, Becky, Jack and Sally; and the chase scene after Becky screams at the dog crossing the street.

[dltanner99]

Horror novel  see video book trailer

[ravagednation]

I have lived in Sierra Madre since 1994. Grandparents moved here in 1964. Best little known town to live in (if you have to live in LA) at the base of Mount Wilson & bordering Pasadena. The only way to shoot video from that vantage point would be on top of a ladder on top of a liquor store. And the pods don't come from Fox News they're in a pill bottle in your medicine cabinet. Prozac anyone?

[paulallan1000]

This location was also used for the 1981 version of Halloween 2 when Michael Myers walks through it on the way to Haddonfield Hospital

[Sk8erIT]

i read the book the year of the bomb this is in it