It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Wonderful Movie

Fantastic!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

IT! The Terror From Beyond Space is an instant classic for those who like this genre of film (specifically sci-fi flicks from the 50's and B-movies.) I won't bother giving a synopsis, as you can find that anywhere on this website and elsewhere, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how good this flick was. I got this on a DVD that also included Monster That Challenged The World, and while I bought it for Monster That Challenged The World, it was IT! that became my favorite of the two. IT! starts out a little slow like most movies of its time, but it's actually very well paced for these kinds of films. You see the Martian Monster quite a bit. The whole movie has this panic-y feel to it, as it's basically focused on a space crew stuck on a rocket ship with a VIOLENT alien from Mars. They basically have to keep trying to kill the monster until it chases them up to the very top and final level of the spaceship. There's a GREAT, CREEPY atmosphere created through wonderful lighting, and eerie, yet really good sounding music. The ending was really disappointing though, as they end up killing the beast by depriving him of oxygen...even though he's from Mars? There's also smoking, bazookas, grenades, and guns being fired on the ship. What could go wrong?!?! All in all, this movie is very entertaining, all logical fallacies aside, and grabs you instantly, if you're a fan of this kind of movie. John Carpenter has gone on record to say he loves it, and it was a HUGE inspiration for Ridley Scott's "Alien. "

Hokey, lame, somewhat suspenseful, slightly scary, with odd science, just like most 3rd rate sci-fi in the 50's. This was scheduled to fill a two hour time slot on TV, but there were sooo many commercials, then I noticed this was only a 69 minute film. If you took all the good parts and throw out the lame parts, it would be a good 20 minutes. No action of events on Mars, only on the spaceship and at a lame news conference on Earth. The spaceship is quite the deal. All the comforts of home: a good gravity system, separate sleeping quarters for all, smoking allowed, made out of fantastic metal that even 6 grenades barely dent, abundant oxygen, a ride so smooth that items don't need to be secured in any fashion. The Martian seems modeled off the creature from the Black Lagoon, only more raggedy. A rollicking good time. Must see, if you want.

Fans of low budget sets, wild predictions of what the future world might look like, and cheesy monsters in rubber suits will definitely get a kick out of "It! The Terror from Beyond Space". I mean seriously, there's even an exclamation point in the title, it's GOT to be good!I could go any number of ways here but I think it's best to point out all the goofy stuff that shows up in the writing and direction here, everything's a blast. Like the character of Colonel Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), commander of the first failed mission to Mars because his entire crew wound up dead and he's accused of murdering them all! Really?!?! Why not then just give him free reign of the ship and not bother restraining him on the flight back to Earth to stand trial. Good plan.Now I'm not sure what the pre-flight check list for supplies on board might have looked like, but who do you suppose checked off a box of grenades and a bazooka? What?!?! I'll have to check in with NASA to see what they have to say about it, but that certainly sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? What might have been even more comical at one point was when one of the crew members stated that using gas against the monster on board would only be used as a last resort, and then they go right ahead and use it! Well it shouldn't surprise anyone who grew up in the Fifties to see scientists smoking on board a space ship, heck, doctors smoked in operating rooms back then, so no big deal. No more bizarre though then watching those two crew members walk down the outside hull of the ship flying through space while the stars remained stationary. You know, after a while, all this stuff could give science a bad name.But the best for this long time fan of geeky sci-fi, horror and B Westerns was learning the identity of the man in the monster suit. Ray Corrigan appeared in dozens of oaters but gained dubious notoriety in the Forties for appearing in a gorilla suit in titles like "The Ape", "Nabonga", "White Pongo" and "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla". The monster outfit for this film was actually made for a physically smaller actor, so when a casting change gave the job to Corrigan, he wound up with his chin where the lips were, and couldn't see out of the eye holes. Ever the trooper and with a budget that didn't allow for a costume do-over, Corrigan pulled out all the stops to make 'It!' work. Who knows, maybe that's where the exclamation point came from.

Fondly remembered science fiction film about a rocket ship being sent to Mars to rescue the first ship to land there. The crew finds that there is only one survivor, a Col. Caruthers(played by Marshall Thompson) who insists he did not murder his crew-mates to stay alive, but instead a mysterious creature did. Though not believed, he is proved right when "It" stows away on the ship, and begins murdering the crew to stay alive. Can "It" be stopped before they reach Earth? Though director Edward L. Cahn does create some tension in the claustrophobic sets, this is just too low-budget for its ambition, with a bit too much silliness(throwing grenades inside the ship is not a good idea!) Good score though, but really needed more time and money to have made it a success, though it is amusing to think it may have influenced "Alien".