Kaufman directed Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), a remake that relocated its premise to a contemporary city and made the horror social rather than rural. The film works because nobody behaves unusually until it is far too late, and because it ends without rescue. Its city is filmed as a place already halfway lost before anything visibly happens.
His filmography moves freely between genres, from historical drama to science fiction, and he brings a literary sensibility to each. He favours long takes and naturalistic performance, so genre elements arrive inside a register that feels documentary rather than fantastical, which is exactly what makes them land.
Recurring subjects: conformity as an existential threat, institutions that absorb dissent quietly, and characters who cannot convince anyone of what they know. Sound design is used to unsettle before the image does, with wrong noises arriving underneath ordinary conversation. He resists explaining his premises, which keeps them frightening long after the credits, since nothing has been reduced to a mechanism the viewer can dismiss.
His remake is widely regarded as the rare version that surpasses its original, and its final image remains one of the most quoted endings in the genre, reproduced and parodied for decades.
For viewers who want science fiction horror built on atmosphere and social unease rather than on effects. A strong recommendation for anyone who assumes remakes are inherently lesser than their originals. Best seen without knowing the ending, and better still with an audience, since the dread is contagious.
