La Fusée de l'épouvante

When I first saw this film on late night TV, I was hypnotized by its atmosphere and clean, deceptive surfaces. There was a lot of light and shade and the monster was kept off-screen for as long as possible. The claustrophobia of the situation eventually got to me and I didn't survive my first screening. When the film screened again, I survived it, and I enjoyed the suspense. I liked the monster, too, because at seven year's old, I was oblivious to the zipper up the back.

Even now, I still like "It The Terror From Beyond Space". Clearly, along with van Vogt's 'Voyage of the Space Beagle' (a great novel from a great novelist) and Bava's "Planet of the Vampires", these three works were the inspiration for "Alien". The architecture of "It" clearly wasn't an inspiration for Scott's film, so Scott went and dirtied his ship up instead. And I'd hazard a guess that Bava's footage of the astronauts on the vampire planet is what caught Ridley's attention.

The plot of "It" is akin to "Alien" and so are some of the set-ups. The claustrophobic environment in "It" is still impressive, as is the spare sound design and use of simple sonics.

"It" moves along briskly and features some exciting action sequences as the spaceship's crew members are stalked by the marauding extraterrestrial.

Low budget, sure, but a high concept skilfully realized.

In many ways, this film looks as if it was inspired by THE THING and in turn, this film seems to have inspired ALIEN. There are a lot of similarities to each other--and all are excellent and very tense sci-fi thrillers.

The film begins with an astronaut under arrest and on his way back to Earth from Mars. It seems that his ship was the first on the planet and when a rescue crew arrived, only one man was left from the crew--the others had been murdered or just disappeared. Logically, they assume that the surviving crew member had killed his comrades, so they pack him aboard and take him back for a court martial. However, what no one realizes is that they also have accidentally transported the REAL killer on the ship as well and after a while, its insatiable blood-lust is unleashed. While it looks like they are all about to die, there is a bright side--at least now they know that the guy under arrest is innocent! The rest of the film consists of the crew's efforts to stop the monster and make it back alive--and it sure doesn't look like it will be easy.

The look of the ship is very much like a 50s sci-fi film, but it looks a little better--larger and less fake than you'd find in a typical rocket film of the day. The acting also is pretty good, as is the script and the monster costume is pretty decent It's obvious that this movie was not just tossed together and is definitely a better than average film of the genre. The only negative, and it's a minor one, is that the film (like the others listed above) is rather claustrophobic. Still, it's dandy and intelligent entertainment.

If you'rr a ten year old kid home alone at about one in the morning in a creaky old house in the early sixties, this movie is actually pretty scary. The scenes where the monster keeps his just barely alive victims in the air vents (and actually drags one of them around with him) for who knows what reason are chillingly eery (or eeringly chilly). Good film for nostalgia fans.

This is one of the many early sci-fi movies released in the 1950s. Standard for these types of B-Pictures was to put more drama and excitement in the film, than real science. Few directors during that day and age ever sought good solid factual science facts, instead they wanted good old fashion monster vs Earthling type action. They were hooky and poorly made, but without knowing it, they created the nightmare memories of our youthful dreams. As a result, they gave audiences what they sought, trills and cheap entertainment. The story in this film is the foundation of modern films like 'Alien' and for its day had formulas which worked. Marshall Thompson plays Col. Ed Carruthers and Ray "Crash" Corrigan, the stunt man for many other films, plays the Space Monster called " It ." Dabbs Greer plays Eric Royce. Although it is an early sci-fi movie, when seen through the sleepy eyes of a youngster, at the Drive-In theaters of the day, it's nothing less than a Classic. Fun for anyone with a yearning to be frightened by a space monster. ****

Most folks who've watched this and Alien see the obvious similarities. In fact, Alien is what we all kind of imagined as kids watching this film and seeing it with the non-critical eyes of youth.

Regardless, this is a top drawer B movie effort that rises far above its limitations with solid acting, a fine story, eerie and claustrophobic settings with effective lighting, a quick pace and no lag-time.

If you haven't seen it, get the MGM Midnight Movie DVD double with Monster that Challenged the World, another superb B Movie sci-fi thriller that is as good as this one, and has an insect-like monster that you might recognize as the forerunner of the giant bug of Men in Black.