The Strange World of Planet X

I saw this movie once - over 40 years ago - and I still remember it very well. Even as a kid, very few movie really scared me, but this one did. The resident mad scientist does something that let in lots of bad cosmic rays and the local insects become giants. The school is a one room affair set in the middle of a forest. The giant insects attack the school trapping the teacher & the kids. Most horror movie monsters looked hokey - but the monsters in this were extreme close-ups of real insects. It wasn't until Alien that I saw a movie monster as scary as those giant bugs.

I saw this movie recently on VHS. I was surprised at how compelling this film was. It took a while for the monsters to show but that's because great character development and a good plot outline was being established first. But when the monsters to show, there are some shocking scenes for even today.

The effects were very good as well as the acting, especially Forrest Tucker. They even managed to fit in a believable love triangle between the main characters. The logic of the plot pans out very well and was impressive. The movie flowed smoothly and the script well written. Overall it was a great 50s SF film.

Enjoyable sci-fi nostalgia with a British twist as a mad scientist in England first blows out the TV in the village pub, then inadvertently creates giant insects. The cliche-packed script never fails to amuse and the primitive special effects are a joy to behold.

Forrest Tucker mostly retains his dignity while stealing the heart of the French lady scientist, but the unconvincing romance doesn't interfere with the main order of business: lots of screaming females falling unconvincingly to the ground at the sight of a beetle or centipede crudely magnified to Godzilla-like proportions.

Bring popcorn and low expectations!

"The Strange World of Planet X" (British, 1957; usually shown as "The Cosmic Monsters" on American TV) has been one of my favorites for many years. It's been said that films of this type don't appeal to anyone except the public, since they're usually despised by critics, but I found this film great scary fun to watch (throughout many repeated viewings) as well as a good example of how a low budget can be stretched. The performances are sincere; Forrest Tucker is his reliable self as the hero, and I particularly admired the performance of Martin Benson as "Mr. Smith", a benevolent visitor from afar probably inspired by Michael Rennie's "Klaatu" character in 1951's "The Day The Earth Stood Still". The film builds suspense quite well, and there are suitably harrowing scenes involving giant insects. This originally played American theatres as a double feature with another nifty British chiller, "The Trollenberg Terror" aka "The Crawling Eye", which also starred Forrest Tucker.

As a very young lad in the late 50's with an older sister who had a car, I spent many a Saturday with her and her friends at the local movie theater watching the latest horror movies.She says this was my choice because I did'nt like Westerns. Well I can't remember that but I do vaguely remember a certain double feature that scared the hell out of me. When I got home I did not want to go to bed(our house was in the country with woods all around). I thought the real frogs,crickets, and other bugs I heard outside were giant insects coming to get me. Since that night some 45 years ago I have seen countless 50's SF and horror movies hoping to find out what those 2 movies were. Many were similar and some had similar names ie."Thing From Another World", "Monster That Challenged The World"(I also saw it when I was a little older but it did not scare me quite as much),"X The Unknown","The Beginning Of The End" etc. but none were exactly "right".I began to think these movies did not exist or had gotten lost so I just gave up ever finding them, especially since no tv station we get ever shows any old SF or horror movies anymore.Since I had no idea of their titles(if they did exist) or actors in them , I logged on to the imdb and starting reading reviews of some of the movies and BINGO!!!There they both were. I could not believe it.Thanks to the great descriptions by your reviewers I finally found them. Needless to say they have both been ordered. The scariest to me was "The Strange World of Planet X", probably called "Cosmic Monsters" or "Crawling Terror". I can't give a a decent review of either movie because it has been 40+ years. By the way the other goodie was "The Trellenberg Terror" aka "The Crawling Eye" or "The Creature From Another World" . Now my life will be even more complete (ha ha) when someone comes out with a DVD or VHS of "Caltiki ,The Immortal Monster".I did catch it on tv as an "adult" of about 14 years of age but have not seen it since.