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Too terrifying to even have a name, It is a seemingly invincible monster that is hell-bent on killing everyone on a mission to Mars.
A rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor, Col Ed Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) is accused of murdering his fellow crewmen. But Ed claims that the killer was a Martian monster, and hopes to prove his assertions by signing up for a second journey to the Red Planet. Before long, the crew members of this second expedition are being systematically killed off, and it looks as though Ed is up to his old tricks. As it turns out, however, Ed was telling the truth: there is a monster on board, the savage descendant of the once-mighty Martian civilization, who snuck on board when an irresponsible crew member left the door open. The monster stays alive by absorbing the vital body fluids of its victims-and there seems to be no way to stop this parasitic creature! Will they be able to destroy the monster before it manages to feed on them all?
"One of the best sci-fi flicks of the '50s; the basis for Alien" --Video-Reviewmaster.com
"As with Alien and Jaws, for example, the most frightening things about this creature are the things we don't see"
Something of a trivia question these days - which 50s B-movie inspired Alien? - It! The Terror From Beyond Space probably came too late in the day to get the kind of reputation it deserved in the 50s sci-fi pantheon but it's a lot better than you expect. Right from its atmospheric opening shot of a crashed spaceship on Mars accompanied by Marshall Thompson's fatalistic narration, it sets out its stall - this is going to be played straight and with deadly intent. Aiming more for The Thing From Another World than The Monster That Challenged the World's end of the market, the dialogue and interplay doesn't match Hawks although it has the better critter (and very atmospherically photographed the beast is too), a barbarous Martian who stows away aboard a rescue flight taking Thompson back to Earth to face a firing squad for allegedly killing his own crew. Initial distrust gives way to we've-tried-everything-but-nothing-can-stop-it dramatics, but the film shows some originality at times and offers at least one good shock with the discovery of the first body. It's let down by the characterisation, though. The women may be scientists but they're still expected to make the coffee, while the men show reckless abandon with guns and grenades in a moving spaceship. Yet at a brisk 69 minutes it never outstays its welcome and for my money it's a lot more enjoyable than Ridley Scott's movie.
MGM/UA's US NTSC DVD offers the film in fullframe 1.37:1 ratio (it was originally exhibited in widescreen), with the only extra the brief original trailer, complete with subliminal messages urging ‘Don’t miss IT’ and ‘See IT’.
Unfortunately, despite some good reviews, Olive’s Region A-locked Blu-ray release is the kind of typically sloppy job they’ve become notorious for. While it does, surprisingly, include the film’s original theatrical trailer and even more surprisingly has been framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio (MGM/UA’s US DVD was open matte fullframe), it’s a soft and very noisy transfer with plenty of pulsing digital noise in the shadows and lacking much detail in the lengthy takes after lap-dissolves between scenes alongside dull sound quality. With a lot of adjustment to my TV settings I was able to finally find a setting that minimised the problems - on my Panasonic Viera TV the Photo mode with C.A.T.S. off - but it took forever to tweak. One to stick to the DVD.
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