Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

It! The Terror From Beyond Space Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 15, 2015

Were it not for a little film called Alien, chances are few but that very elite group of science fiction aficionados who can cite each and every B-movie ever made in the genre would have much cause to remember It! The Terror From Beyond Space. While this low budget 1958 opus may have gone on to inspire a bigger budgeted, probably better remembered, film, It! The Terror From Beyond Space is itself part of a cinematic chain which can be traced back at least to The Thing from Another World, the iconic 1951 Howard Hawks horror outing. Like The Thing, It! The Terror From Beyond Space (whose trailer actually overtly evokes The Thing at one point) posits a bunch of humans in a remote setting, all of them being stalked by a marauding monster. Of course It! The Terror From Beyond Space doesn’t stick its refugees in a frozen tundra, instead grouping them on a spaceship that’s part of a Mars rescue mission. In fact, the reason a rescue mission is necessary is because there’s been a previous Mars mission which has ended in the deaths of all but one of its astronauts. That sole survivor is Colonel Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), a man who is now suspected of having murdered his crew in order to requisition all available supplies to ensure his endurance. Carruthers insists that there’s a man eating monster loose on the Red Planet, but of course his protestations fall on deaf ears. Evidently in space no one can hear you give an urgent warning.

We hear some doleful narration from Colonel Carruthers as the film opens, though it’s not initially clear why the astronaut is so distraught. A press availability held by the film’s version of NASA features an avuncular man detailing the disturbing just received news that the first mission to the Mars, a mission which had been incommunicado since landing on the Red Planet, has been found by a second rescue mission. Unfortunately, all the crew save for Carruthers is dead, and Carruthers has been arrested for those deaths. (In a rather funny moment, the entire audience of journalists rises en masse and hightails it out of the room at that point, ostensibly to file their reports, though without sticking around to get any details or ask any follow up questions.)

The film then segues to the spaceship, where the rescue mission’s commander, Colonel Van Heusen (Kim Spalding), is keeping his troops on task to get back to earth while also pooh-poohing Carruthers’ claims of a man eating alien. In yet another kind of funny moment, a “who left the door open?” interchange between two crew members lets the audience in on the fact that an interloper has made it on to the spaceship. Perhaps surprisingly, It! The Terror from Beyond Space doesn’t really play it all that circumspectly with regard to revealing the monster. We see its feet from the get go, and while a couple of introductory skirmishes keep the alien shrouded in shadow, finally the alien, which resembles something like the spawn of an ape and the Creature from the Black Lagoon 3D, is seen in all its “glory.”

The rest of It! The Terror from Beyond Space’s pretty brief running time (barely over an hour) simply pits the spaceship crew against the marauding beast, with several “red shirts” (albeit in good old black and white) meeting their fate at the hands of the alien. There are a number of unintentionally funny moments sprinkled throughout the film, including the crew firing several pistols willy-nilly inside the spaceship, with nary a thought of depressurization. The film was obviously made on a shoestring budget (if even that), and frankly has extremely bargain basement level “special effects,” which include stalwart Ray Corrigan stumbling around in his rubber “It” suit.

Never really very frightening due to this lo-fi ambience, as well as some kind of clunky staging courtesy of director Edward L. Cahn, It! The Terror from Beyond Space has passable performances, including from future television stars Marshall Thompson (Daktari) and Paul Langton (Peyton Place). A kind of weird mash up of more traditional monster outings with some frankly low grade science fiction, It! The Terror From Beyond Space is probably not quite bad enough to warrant full on MST3K umbrage, but it certainly will provide more than enough fodder for those who like to shout at their televisions while stupid people vie to win their film’s coveted Darwin Award.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It! The Terror from Beyond Space is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Long swaths of this transfer look surprisingly crisp and well detailed, despite omnipresent signs of age related damage, including a lot of both white flecks and scratches. It does appear that parts of this may have been cobbled together from various sources, as there is variable sharpness and grain structure at different points in the film (contrast screenshots 1 and 18). Generally speaking, though, contrast is excellent and gray scale decently modulated. As is usually the case with Olive Films releases, this is a "warts and all" presentation that shows no signs of any restorative efforts having been made, but at the same time no signs of artificial manipulation of the image.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It! The Terror from Beyond Space features a perfectly serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix, one which faithfully recreates the lo-fi sonic ambience of the original. There are surprisingly few goofy sound effects in the film, with sonic punch achieved more through unlikely elements such as gunfire or electrocution. Dialogue is cleanly presented, and the at times bombastic score by genre stalwarts Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter sounds nicely full bodied.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:09)

It! The Terror From Beyond Space Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If It! The Terror from Beyond Space had been just a little more ridiculous, it could have qualified for an out and out snarkfest movie night for some gaggle of B-movie fans. The film tends to fall into mediocrity more than out and out laughable silliness, though those with an appropriately low expectations bar may indeed be able to squeeze a fair amount of humor out of the proceedings. Maybe one of those people can create an internet meme where Ray Corrigan pops out of John Hurt's chest—that would be required viewing. Technical merits are decent to very good on this release for those considering a purchase.