Rent The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

3.9 of 5 from 115 ratings
1h 18min
Rent The Incredible Shrinking Man Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
Scott Carey (Grant Williams) encounters a mysterious radioactive mist on a boating trip and soon finds his life taking a bizarre and frightening twist. His physical size begins to diminish as he shrinks to a mere two inches. Suddenly ordinary household situations loom over him with lethal intensity: a playful cat becomes a demon and a spider a gargantuan monster. Carey finds he must rely on his wits to survive...
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Directors:
Producers:
Albert Zugsmith
Writers:
Richard Matheson, Richard Alan Simmons
Studio:
Universal Pictures
Genres:
Classics, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
BBFC:
Release Date:
06/02/2006
Run Time:
78 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, German Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Russian Voice Over Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles:
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English Hard of Hearing, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
Colour:
Colour
BBFC:
Release Date:
13/11/2017
Run Time:
81 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
B & W
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Auteur on the Campus: Jack Arnold at Universal - an extended documentary about the early career of director Jack Arnold at Universal-International studios
  • There Is No Zero: Writing 'The Shrinking Man' - an in-depth conversation with author Richard Christian Matheson about his father and the creation of the original Shrinking Man novel
  • Original Super 8 Home Cinema Version
  • Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Teaser

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Reviews (3) of The Incredible Shrinking Man

Brilliant, Imaginative, Classic late-1950s Fantasy - Watchable, Fun and Highly Entertaining - The Incredible Shrinking Man review by PV

Spoiler Alert
06/12/2020

This film is old but still works. It is wonderfully imaginative with the special effects as the main character shrinks. Very clever use of clothes and household items to show that and not tell it.

It's all great fun too, with dramatic music and jaw-dropping (for the time) special effects. It is way better than the modern Mat Damon movie DOWNSIZED too which went on and on. No flab on or in The Incredible Shrinking Man!

I actually turned off a modern film which was boring me to watch this one. I had seen clips before but never the whole thing. I am so glad I did.

It's very 1950s with the nuclear threat and cold war hanging over it like a cloud - literally.

They get the media circus just right - it would be the same but worse today.

And how refreshing to watch a great entertaining film with no agenda to push, no boxtick casting, no yawnsome CGI effects.

But what happened to the cat? That's what I want to know.

The ending is of its time, I suppose. Based on a novel by the man who wrote the screenplay, apparently.

Classic stuff anyway. I could watch it all again now. 5 stars

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Head Movie (spoiler). - The Incredible Shrinking Man review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
29/08/2021

Behind this schlocky fifties exploitation title there is an intelligent sci-fi action film. Exposed to a radioactive cloud, Scott Carey (Grant Williams) begins to lose size. As he does, his relationship to his comfortable, materialistic lifestyle begins to shift.

Experimental medical treatment arrests his decline for a while. When he again begins to lose mass, he eventually falls into his cellar and is presumed dead by his despairing wife. This last third of the film below ground is about Scott's fight for survival, particularly a brilliantly staged combat with a (relatively) giant spider.

Scott finds meaning within confines of his new universe which he had lost as diminished man in the normal sized world. Eventually he loses a sense of his physicality and becomes a transcendental being, freed from the limits of his human perspective.  It's astonishing that Universal allowed the film to end like this. They really wanted Scott to be cured and to return to normality and his old life... which would have been absurd.

This was adapted from his novel by Richard Matheson- his debut film. He would go on to find a home on tv's The Twilight Zone and this is the sort of intelligent, altered reality science fiction that programme specialised in. This is easily the best film of sci-fi/horror expert Jack Arnold. The visual effects of the shrinking man's changing relationship with his environment are most impressive, but it is his interior, philosophical world that leaves the greater impression.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Classic and Fantastic SciFi/Horror - The Incredible Shrinking Man review by GI

Spoiler Alert
26/03/2023

The fear of radiation and/or nuclear holocaust that led to a cycle of science fiction and horror films made in the 1950s are ripe for rediscovery by a modern audience, many are now considered classics of the genre and of American Cinema in general; films such as Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956) and Them (1954) being two superb examples. The Incredible Shrinking Man is also one of the best, a remarkably well structured and photographed film considering its age. Essentially it's a 'Robinson Crusoe' narrative where a happily married man (Grant Williams) is exposed to a strange radioactive mist and begins to gradually shrink. First he has to deal with the fear and emotions of the change and the effect on his marriage and then the social stigma of being different. Then the story moves into a survival narrative and the horrors of battling to live. Williams performance is very good when you consider that he had to act against nothing at all to achieve the effect of being very small as this all before green screen and CGI. The resulting film is exciting, very scary and tense. Film fans I urge you to seek this out it's simply fantastic and its fully restored for DVD and BluRay.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

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