The Hot Spot Rating
Title: It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
Cast: Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Nutshell: An aborted mission see’s a space shuttle being transported back to earth and safety but they didn’t account for an unexpected guest on board.
“One of the best science-fiction films of the 1950s.”— Bill Warren, Keep Watching the Skies!
“Fast-moving and highly entertaining.”— Bill Warren
“A suspenseful little thriller.”— The Monthly Film Bulletin
“An ingenious science-fiction shocker.”— Harrison’s Reports
“A taut and exciting space thriller.”— Variety
“The obvious precursor to Alien.”— Time Out Film Guide
“One of the most influential science-fiction films of its era.”— Video Watchdog
“A lean, efficient and surprisingly effective monster movie.”— DVD Savant
“The film’s greatest asset is its relentless pace.”— Moria Reviews
“A B-movie classic.”— Classic Images
“The monster is among the most memorable creatures of 1950s science fiction.”— Creature Features Movie Guide
“A clever combination of science fiction and horror.”— The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction
It is 1973 and a triumphant expedition to Mars has captured the imagination of the entire world. Unfortunately, something has gone catastrophically wrong.
Of the dozen or so crew members who embarked upon the historic mission, only one man has returned alive.
Captain Ed Carruthers.
The President of the United States orders a rescue vessel to retrieve Carruthers and bring him home to face a court martial. The assumption is simple: he murdered his fellow crew members in order to survive.
Carruthers protests his innocence repeatedly, insisting that a monstrous creature slaughtered the crew one by one. Unfortunately for him, nobody is interested in listening. He has no evidence, no witnesses and no proof to support what sounds like an increasingly ridiculous story.
Resigned to his fate, Carruthers prepares to face trial.
Then strange noises begin echoing from the lower decks of the rescue ship.
When one of the crew members investigates, he encounters something large, powerful and extremely unfriendly. The unfortunate fellow is dispatched in short order by a hulking beast sporting an enormous rubbery dinosaur-like head and enough strength to crush a man without difficulty.
A second crew member searching for the missing man soon meets exactly the same fate.
Suddenly Carruthers’ story no longer sounds quite so absurd.
As the surviving crew finally realise that he has been telling the truth all along, they scramble desperately to contain the creature before it wipes them all out.
Their first plan involves pumping the monster full of poison gas.
Unfortunately, this merely succeeds in making it extremely angry.
Plan B calls for grenades.
This proves equally unsuccessful and carries the added disadvantage of potentially blowing holes in the spacecraft.
Electrocution follows.
That doesn’t work either.
Running out of options, the crew finally consider the extremely risky possibility of venting oxygen and using the vacuum of space to suck the creature from the ship altogether.
The result becomes a desperate battle for survival.
Either the monster survives or the crew does.
And if the creature somehow reaches Earth, who knows how many more of its kind may follow from the red planet?
Viewed today, it is impossible not to notice how much Alien appears to owe to It! The Terror from Beyond Space. The basic premise is remarkably similar. A spacecraft travelling through deep space unknowingly carries a deadly passenger aboard. The creature proceeds to stalk and eliminate the crew one by one while panic spreads amongst the survivors.
The similarities are difficult to ignore.
Of course, Ridley Scott’s Alien possesses production values, atmosphere, set design and creature effects operating on an entirely different level. H.R. Giger’s biomechanical nightmare remains one of cinema’s greatest monster creations.
It! has no such advantages.
Its budget clearly stretched only far enough to provide an impressive rubber monster suit and little else.
The exterior shots of the spacecraft are wonderfully clunky and delightfully artificial. Meanwhile, the interior resembles less a futuristic vessel travelling through the cosmos and more a slightly cramped apartment fitted with a few blinking lights and control panels.
Yet there is a certain charm to all of this.
The monster itself remains surprisingly effective. While hardly terrifying by modern standards, it possesses enough physical presence to make the attacks enjoyable. The creature resembles a bulkier extraterrestrial cousin of the Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with clawed hands and a rather impressive headpiece.
Some sequences still work remarkably well.
Watching the creature emerge from the shadows and lunge at victims with its webbed claws can generate genuine tension, even if the film never fully capitalises on the concept.
The biggest weakness lies in the lack of atmosphere. Despite its excellent premise, the film rarely generates sustained suspense. The attacks are entertaining rather than frightening and the direction never quite extracts the full potential from the material.
Nevertheless, this remains enjoyable science-fiction horror from the Atomic Age era, a period that gave us countless giant insects, radioactive mutations and men in rubber suits terrorising humanity.
If one approaches it with realistic expectations, there is much to enjoy.
The creature is memorable, the pacing brisk and the central idea strong enough to carry the picture despite its limitations.
Hardcore genre enthusiasts will almost certainly find plenty to admire, particularly those with a fondness for vintage science-fiction horror and practical monster effects.
For everyone else, It! The Terror from Beyond Space makes perfectly respectable Sunday-afternoon viewing when there is little else demanding attention.
Not a classic, but a likeable and historically important ancestor to one of the greatest science-fiction horror films ever made.
