Teenagers from Outer Space

1959
Approved
1h 26m

IMDb RATING

3.9/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love, and plot to stop the alien's race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.

Play trailer1:38

1 Video

39 Photos

Alien Invasion B-Horror Horror Sci-Fi Thriller

A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love and plot to stop the alien race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love and plot to stop the alien race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love and plot to stop the alien race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

3.9/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Betty Morgan
(as Dawn Anderson)

Bryan Grant

Thor

Harvey B. Dunn

Gramps Morgan

Tom Graeff

Joe Rogers
(as Tom Lockyear)

King Moody

Spacecraft Captain
(as Robert King Moody)

Helen Sage

Nurse Morse

Frederick Welch

Dr. C.R. Brandt
(as Frederic Welch)

Carl Dickinson

Gas Station Attendant
(as Carl Dickensen)

Sonia Torgeson

Alice Woodward

Billy Bridges

Driver Picking Up Thor

James Conklin

Prof. Simpson

Gene Sterling

The Alien Leader

Ralph Lowe

Moreal - Spaceship Crew

Bill DeLand

Saul - Spaceship Crew

Ursula Hansen

Hilda

Robert B. Williams

TV Newsman
(as Bob Williams)

Don DeClue

Generating Plant Worker

Director
- Tom Graeff
Writer
- Tom Graeff
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews134

3.94.1K

Featured reviews

L_Miller

Better than the budget.

I know it sounds stupid, but I saw this movie last night and it's not as bad as some of the descriptions make it out to be. Maltin gets a little hoity-toity in his reviews; a movie doesn't have to be "The Color Purple" to be worth watching.

It's not Oscar material to be sure and the effects are _awful_, but the writing is a lot better than most films of this ilk and the action/acting is OK.

If you're busting code out at 3 AM and this comes on, don't turn the channel. Kind of an interesting flick.

cessna1505

Behind the scenes story was even better

Tom Graeff's entire film career consisted of this one film and work editing another. He shot it for $5000, performed much of the work himself, and gave his boyfriend David Love (Charles Robert Kaltenthaler) the lead role. Graeff was 28 and Love 23 when the film was shot. Graeff died 12 years later after an apparent mental breakdown; no one seems to know what happened to Love. Amazingly, Warners paid $25,000 for distribution rights for this clunker at a time when teen audiences were eating up sci-fi movies. More bizarre details about the film, including props and locations used, are at the Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt website.

7ChuckStraub

This movie is the prime example of 50s B movie sci-fi.

This film is a prime example of the low budget 1950s B movie sci-fi. This movie is the 50s and that's the best reason of why you should see it. Anyone who is interested in 50s sci-fi, has to see Teenagers From Outer Space. The flaws are so numerous they can't be counted, and the acting is as bad as the script. The only monsters in the movie are the Gargons, which are lobsters. Apart from these flaws, Teenagers From Outer Space is a fun movie. I've watched it several times and find it very entertaining. The alien's death ray gun is quite impressive, as are the scenes in which it is used. View this movie remembering it is 1959. I would think this film would have been quite popular and very scary back then. Sit down, relax and get a bowl of popcorn. Pop in the DVD or VCR and have a good time watching this fun, exciting 1950s sci-fi thriller.

6cthuluflakes

in defense of 'teenagers'

'teenagers from out of space' has grown on me a LOT since the first time i saw it. true, it isn't a very good movie, but considering how they used what little they had to work with (budget-wise, acing-wise, etc.) i'd say this movie deserves a bit more respect. the effects were cleverly planned (if not well-executed), the fairly inexperienced actors weren't terrible ( except for TORCHA! guy, but he's so bad he's great), and it had a decent plot with a fairly atypical ending. (okay, there's no excuse for the lobster. the lobster was just terrible.) it's no 'godfather' (heck, it's not even 'cannibal: the musical'), but, in the vein of 'night of the living dead', 'teenagers' takes very little and makes something decent with it.

4bensonmum2

Anyone feel like going to Red Lobster

Aliens land on Earth to determine whether or not the planet is suitable for raising their Gargons (a creature raised by the aliens for consumption). It seems that these Gargons are quite ferocious and as big as a house when fully grown. Therefore, they require their own planet. But releasing the Gargons on Earth will wipe out all of humanity. One alien, Derek (David Love), has second thoughts about killing the inhabitants of Earth. He leaves the group to warn the citizens of Earth. What he doesn't know, however, is that one of the other aliens has been sent to stop him.

While I've seen worse, Teenagers from Outer Space is really not a very good movie. Most of the acting is terrible and the dialogue is even worse. The "teenagers" mentioned in the title appear to be mid-20s to early-30s in age. The flying saucer used by the aliens is about ten feet in diameter, yet can carry 6 or 7 human sized aliens. The Gargons are really just lobsters. The full-grown Gargon is a shadow of a lobster projected onto the film to make it look huge. Much of the movie is laughable at best.

But, Teenagers from Outer Space is not as bad as it could have been. Underneath the cheese is a nice little story just aching to get out. The two leads (David Love and Dawn Bender) do their best. There is a real chemistry between the two that comes through even the most hokey of scenes. Although they might have lacked real talent, they appeared to be trying. So many of these 50s sci-fi films have actors that just appear to be going through the motions.

The aliens use some sort of hand-held death ray weapon. And, for this kind of movie, the results are rather gruesome. In a lot of these movies, when someone is shot with a ray gun, they either fall down without a scratch to be seen or just disappear. Not here. When the human (and canine) victims are hit with these ray guns, all tissue disappears leaving only a (obviously plastic) skeleton. It's not a very pleasant way to go.

I watched the MST3K version of the movie. As usual, there were a few good laughs to be had. But this is one movie that I'm going to try on its own. I think it deserves to be judged that way.

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The "zap" visual from the ray-gun toys was accomplished by a mirror glued on to the nozzle and pointed at the camera, which was hit by the "deadly" glare.

Goofs
The teenagers speak English so the viewers can understand them, but arriving from outer space with suitcase-like instruments is another thing. When they first exit their ship and set up their instruments to take readings, one of the suitcases even labeled inside as a "Multi-Channel Mixer."

Quotes
Derek: You make me angry. But I like you very much.

Crazy credits
To give his film more credibility, writer/director/composer/editor/producer/actor Tom (Lockyear) Graeff credited himself as "Tom Lockyear" for the role of Joe, a newspaper reporter and Betty's boyfriend.