IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958) - Great little film about 70 minutes long. It's like ALIEN and SHIVERS in one film. There is this three fingered creature from Mars that gets on a ship headed back to earth. Some worthy moments in this film. I also like the beginning with the Mars surface and naration.
Great movie. Loved the way the female crew members, despite being scientists in their own right, were still pouring coffee and clearing the dishes while the men gabbed. Smoking on a spacecraft was almost as amusing.
It also had a great promotional gimmick when it came out - a cash reward for anybody who could prove that It! wasn't really living on Mars.
Yea the smoking and shooting and grenades on a space craft was hilarious.
About the movie Shivers I meant that Shivers and It ! The Terror From Beyond Space have elements they were put into Alien.
I remember when I was 10 years old that my grandpa, who knew full well what kind of movies I liked, bought the MGM video release of IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. Ever since then, I still have the video and I still watch it from time to time.
Watching it via a perspective of today, I really don't think the film is very primitive in terms of what year it was made. Yeah, the lady scientists serve coffee and clean up the mess, the men smoke on the ship, and grenades and bazooka rockets are fired. This is all primitive concepts to todays society. But then, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE is science fiction: it's a fantasy, not realisim. Sci-fi can be made into a realistic concept, but when scriptwriter Jerome Bixby came up with the conceptual idea for IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE he kept the film in pure fantasy mode. The things that happen in the film (i.e., the smoking, the grenades, etc,) can be looked at today as the perfect fantasy, which makes the film fun.
Imagine if IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE were remade in this day as a modern sci-fi film and that most of the fantasy elements involving the grenades, smoking, the women scientists-cooks were removed in place of more "accurate" portrayl. Would it really be any better? I doubt it, because it wouldn't be a fantasy, and it wouldn't be sci-fi.
That's just my take on the whole thing.
Nobody's complaining about any of that. It's the goofy stuff that makes it fun.
Like the best old sci-fi movies, it's not much of a prediction of the future, but speaks volumes of the time it was made.
Yee heehee!
I love this flick.
Its one of my "Roll yer own" MSTs. Lots of good riffing material!
"What great accoustics, you can hear a death scream from anywhere in the ship!"
(Monster grabs Gino) Smokeing ain't the only thing that'll kill ya! Hah!"
( guy with bazooka) "Back blast? I ain't worryed bout no stinkin' back blast."
( Rigging grenades) "So, how thick is this ships skin agine?"
Ah, yeah.....
I'd completely forgotten about the explosives. How do you get rid of a monster? Wire about a dozen hand grenades to the equipment that recycles your air supply.
This film was eventually acknowledged as the source of Alien, not just an inspiration. It's practically identical in many ways - especially if you consider the cut scene in Alien with Dallas.
Good points Chris K. A film that follows the facts can be rather dull. Like Andy said this is what we love about certain movies. We are not critising the film, but rather admirring the films unique points.