retro-the-best....: [New post] It! The Terror from Beyond Space

Monday, May 30, 2011

[New post] It! The Terror from Beyond Space

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

dailypop | May 30, 2011 at 9:27 pm | Tags: cult science fiction, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, ridley scott alien | Categories: Cult SciFi | URL: http://wp.me/p4kUt-2GU

In the days of the drive-in movie, science fiction usually consisted of beefy guys in jumpsuits, a rubbery monster and rocket ships run by sparklers. Directed by Edward Cahn (of the Our Gang films starring Alfalfa, Spanky and the rest), It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an iconic film that heavily influenced the genre of horror/sci-fi. The movie centers on a failed Mars expedition. The entire crew was murdered under mysterious circumstances, leaving the soul survivor, Col. Edward Carruthers, the prime suspect. When a second craft arrives to bring Carruthers back to Earth for a trial, things get a bit complicated. Carruthers insists that a monstrous creature was responsible for the deaths of his fellow shipmates, even though Mars is thought to be uninhabited. Of course the killer creature sneaks on board and starts killing the crew of the second ship one by one, transforming the spacecraft into a maze of death.

Sound familiar? Well, a certain director named Ridley Scott was understandably influenced by It! The Terror from Beyond Space and used it as a major inspiration in his film Alien in 1979, a gripping film featuring a terrifying monster slaughtering its prey in the emptiness of space, cut off from help. The 1958 film, however, is a far cry from the subtleness of Alien. The 50's vision of the future is full of macho men looking less fit than a warehouse staff helming a mission to the stars. Not only that, but the craft comes complete with lunch ladies (no kidding, there really is a staff of women in aprons serving the astronauts food). The monster itself is impressive on first glance, but after you get accustomed to the rubbery fangs it loses the impact. The crew's ingenious methods of killing the blood-sucking villain are more disturbing than the threat it poses; a string of grenades around every air vent, chemical attack and eventually just chucking everything they can down at it.

The thing that that confuses me the most about It! The Terror from Beyond Space, is that Carruthers is so calm and composed yet he apparently watched all of his colleagues get the life sucked out of them one by one. It may just be that director Edward Cahn just wasn't up to a sophisticated spine-chilling drama that the script hinted at.

Adapted into comic book format in 2010 by IDW, It! The Terror from Beyond Space has a strong cult following that still has a bog presence in the pop culture-sphere. It's a fun kitschy flick that is lots of fun if you are a fan of the black and white science fiction legacy.

Trailer
watch?v=OZHrCkEmgFo

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