Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
When Environmental Protection Agency inspector Steve Malone travels to a remote military base in order to check for toxic materials, he brings his family along for the ride. After arriving at the base, his teenage daughter Marti befriends Jean Platt, daughter of the base's commander, General Platt. When people at the base begin acting strangely, Marti becomes convinced that they are slowly being replaced by plant-like aliens.
This third adaptation of Jack Finney's novel directed by Abel Ferrara brings a military base setting and a teenage protagonist perspective, but largely recycles the paranoia beats of earlier versions without adding much new thematic weight. The plot hits familiar marks without distinguishing itself. Acting is serviceable but unremarkable across the board. Ferrara brings some atmospheric visual grit and the production design has moments of genuine unease, lifting cinematography slightly above average. Novelty suffers from being the third remake of the same story with no radical reinvention. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying, failing to deliver on the dread built up earlier.