Rent It!: The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
3.1 of 5 from 63 ratings
1h 7min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Too terrifying to even have a name, "It" is a seemingly invincible monster that is hell-bent on killing everyone on a mission to Mars. A rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor, Col Ed Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), is accused of murdering his fellow crewmen. But Ed claims that the killer was a Martian monster, and hopes to prove his assertions by signing up for a second journey to the Red Planet. Before long, the crew members of this second expedition are being systematically killed off, and it looks as though Ed is up to his old tricks. As it turns out, however, Ed was telling the truth: there is a monster on board, the savage descendant of the once-mighty Martian civilization, who snuck on board when an irresponsible crew member left the door open. The monster stays alive by absorbing the vital body fluids of its victims - and there seems to be no way to stop this parasitic creature! Will they be able to destroy the monster before it manages to feed on them all? - Actors:
- Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Paul Langton, Robert Bice, Richard Benedict, Richard Hervey, Thom Carney, Ray Corrigan, Stuart Hall, Mike Morelli, Monty O'Grady, Bert Stevens, Pierre Watkin
- Directors:
- Edward L. Cahn
- Producers:
- Robert E. Kent, Edward Small
- Writers:
- Jerome Bixby
- Studio:
- 101 Films
- Genres:
- Classics, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Collections:
- A History of Films Set In The Future, A Brief History of Film...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 30/05/2016
- Run Time:
- 70 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
- Subtitles:
- None
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
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Reviews (1) of It!: The Terror from Beyond Space
"ALIEN" RIP-OFF BEFORE ITS TIME - It!: The Terror from Beyond Space review by Frank TALKER™
Decent and brisk science-fiction movie, set in 1973, about the White race's obsession with manned exploration combined with the sheer terror of what they imagine they might find on their travels. Almost as if the 'final frontier' were somehow analogous to the "Dark Continent" of Africa.
The "it" here comes very much from the Caucasian id, especially given the fact that this space mission is actually a military exercise undertaken by the 'United States Space Command' in a rocketship packed-to-the-gunnels with military ordnance - automatic pistols, carbines, fragmentation & gas grenades & a bazooka. Quite an arsenal for a round trip to a supposedly-dead planet like Mars!
Surprisingly technically-accurate - at least in view of the silence of space necessitated by the fact that sound, unlike light, does not travel in a vacuum - this movie has too many characters to emotionally invest-in. But at least none of the actresses are here to shrilly scream for the men to come and save them since they actually perform scientific functions in the plot and are treated as more-or-less equals by the men.
The horror element is less successful here since "it" is clearly just a well-built man in an ill-fitting monster suit - whom walks stiffly just like a well-built man in an ill-fitting monster suit would - partly-hidden behind a gloomy lighting-scheme.
What really hurts this movie is that the creature has no motivation for its behaviour beyond wanton destruction and dealing-out death; making it the unreasoning creation of irrational cinematic minds whom are unwilling to grow-up beyond childhood stories of bogeymen.
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