Starring: Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Paul Langton, Ray Corrigan
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Writer: Jerome Bixby
Running time: 69 minutes
Rated: None (contains mild creature violence)
Reviewed by Michael Juvinall – Horror Society
It! The Terror from Beyond Space is released on Blu-ray on May 19th from Olive Films
The 1950’s were a fertile time for science fiction to run rampant on the cinema screens across the country. Horror, which ruled the 1930’s and 40’s had pretty much declined during this time.
This was a time of science running amok, the atom bomb, space exploration, and all things futuristic fascinating audiences now. The year was 1958 and a low-budget B-movie entitled, It! The Terror from Beyond Space had been released into theaters during the summer. Theater goers and critics alike praised the film and it received a much better reception than anticipated for a B-movie. The film has garnered quite a legacy over the years as it is said to have heavily inspired writer Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay for Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).
In the film, a rescue mission is sent to Mars to bring back the lone survivor of a previous expedition to the red planet from Earth. Col. Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) is the previous mission’s commander and sole survivor of that ill-fated expedition. Carruthers claims his crew was all killed by a hostile alien life form from Mars. Most of the crew of the rescue ship don’t believe Carruthers story, thinking he killed his crew to survive and they intend to bring him back for a court martial.
The rescue ship blasts-off from Mars for the long six month trip back to Earth, but unbeknownst to them, a crew member inadvertently leaves an external exhaust vent open long enough for the alien creature to stowaway aboard the ship. Once aboard, the hostile alien begins to hunt and kill the crew members one at a time. Carruthers must find a way to convince his captors that he is not the murderer of his crew and that they are all in great danger before it’s too late for them all.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space is not your typical sci-fi B-movie. It started a trend that has been copied, re-copied, and remade to this very day. This film started the trope of an alien monster that hunts its victims in an enclosed space; usually a ship of some sort and this type of film has been remade literally hundreds of times since.
The film itself is a step above most films of this era mainly due to the simplistic storyline that introduced audiences to a new type of fear…the fear of being stalked by a monster in outer space. We learned that outer space is not the nice friendly place we thought it was. Now, It! was not the first film to feature a malevolent space alien, but those creatures usually came to Earth to attack us. It taught theater goers the cold, dark recesses of space were even more dangerous than we could’ve imagined.
The film features a couple of familiar faces with the lead being played well by Marshall Thompson who would go on to be featured in a multitude of films and TV shows. You also might recognize a
young Dabs Greer as Eric Royce in the film. Greer would go on to play over 300 roles but was most recognized as “Reverend Alden” in Little House on the Prairie. The rest of the cast was great in the film as well.
There are some truly creepy moments in the film as the hulking alien stalks the crew members from out of the darkness and there are also some great uses of shadows in the film adding to the frights.
The creature’s suit in the film is your typical rubber monster suit with an actor inside. The film’s creature designer was Paul Blaisdell who was a much underrated special effects designer of the time. He created such classic creatures as The Beast with a Million Eyes 1955, It Conquered the World 1956, and Invasion of the Saucer Men 1957. As interesting side note about the creature suit – the actor inside the suit was Ray “Crash” Corrigan, a popular athlete and stuntman of the time. He did not go to get tested for the suit while it was being built and because he was such a large and powerful man, when he put the suit on, his chin stuck out of the mouth hole. The producers just went with that and painted his chin to look like a tongue.
Of course, the film is not perfect. There are a number of scenes where the continuity is flawed and you can see a monofilament fishing line being used to close a space door, also some of the logic just doesn’t make sense. These are all nuances that add to the film’s charm in my opinion and nothing is so blatantly bad as to spoil the film.
Overall, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is a highly amusing sci-fi/horror classic that ushered in a new type of suspense. It’s a wonderful creature feature that offers a classic monster and more than enough thrills to make for a delightfully fun time watching. Keep in mind, if it were not for It! There would not be one of the best sci-fi/horror films of all-time…Alien.
4 out of 5 Pentagrams!
Blu-ray review:
This is the first time It! The Terror from Beyond Space has been introduced onto Blu-ray, coming from Olive Films. I really wish the Blu-ray presentation was as good as the film itself but alas, the disc has its share of problems.
Firstly, the disc’s transfer leaves a lot to be desired. The b&w picture quality is below average with spotty to snowy scenes throughout the film. I don’t know how much of this is due to the original source material, so I can’t say it’s all the fault of the Blu-ray transfer with any degree of accuracy. Aside from the many scenes with poor picture quality, the rest of the transfer is passable for a film from 1958.
The film’s mono soundtrack is split between the front two speakers for a simulated stereo sound which is acceptable.
I was also a little disappointed with the lack of supplemental features on the disc. The only supplemental material included is the theatrical trailer. Basically, this is a bare bones Blu-ray release.
Overall, the disc quality is not the best but it is very nice to have the film on Blu-ray for the first time.
Blu-ray quality:
2 ½ out of 5 Pentagrams!
Watch the trailer here,
