Cheap It! The Terror from Beyond Space (DVD) (Marshall Thompson) (Edward L. Cahn) Price

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Customer Reviews of It! The Terror from Beyond Space

It gave Birth to Aliens
This is a great '50's Sci-Fi movie. It's relatively unknown. I don't know anyone who has seen this movie until I've let them see my copy. My theory is that the movie "Alien" is based on this film: A space ship returns home from visiting a far-off planet (to pick-up Marshall Thompson who is under suspicion of killing all of the expedition memebers) but not before accidently picking up extra "cargo"...an alien life form that hides in the storage room that systematically kills one crew member after another. It was the same creature that Marshall Thompson knew about that killed memebers of his expedition but he can't prove it, and now the same creature has joined their flight home.

There are two things that make this film great: 1.) A pretty decent story that keeps the "monster" out of sight until you really need to see it. The mystery builds as we only see shadows of the creature on the wall as it kills crew members. We are given little hints though that something is wrong on board, like unusual oxygen consumption, that keep the story moving along. 2.) This is a '50's movie so it's great fun to watch and make fun of what was considered to be space travel back then. Take for instance the interior of the space ship. Heavy metal WWII-era cabinets, stairs, primitive controls, etc. Then (and here's the best part) there is the means of trying to kill the "creature". Grenades are used in an attempt to kill it and the crew, equipped with 45cal. automatics, fire randomly at the creature. Keep in mind, the crew is INSIDE a space ship in space! Oh well, I guess it wasn't known that space was void of oxygen or what the perils of shooting holes throught the walls of the ship were back then.

If you can forget the bit of '50's silliness, the storyline holds together through to the end of the film and one cannot help but see the parallels to many of the newer space/creature/sci-fi movies of late.

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It! The Essence of 50's Sci-Fi!
Let's face "It," you either love 50's sci-fi, or you don't! If you are one of the lucky who love it, then this is, unquestionably, another of those movies that you'll surely love. It has everything a 50's sci-fi lover loves: painted outer space backdrops, a rubber-suit monster, subservient female astronauts, and a classic missle-shaped rocketship with a sparkler propulsion system. Yes, it's classic 50's sci-fi, and this is the essence of it's charm. It has all the standard nostalgia that the lover's of it's kind have grown to expect and endear. This is the type of movie that should be forgiven for the limitations of it's time and appreciated for it's story--a story which is actually, on it's own, exceptionally good for any time. Yes, any lover of the genre will appreciate it's originality--the fact that never before had a monster been brought back from an alien planet on a ship. Never before had a monster on a ship picked-off astronauts one by one, as it slipped through air ducts. Yes, this reminds me of another of my all-time favorite films from another time and place. "It" also reminds me that great special effects are only a small part of what makes a movie a classic. So, sit back, turn out the lights, forget what the year is and where you are, and enjoy It!

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The Movie That Started It All
One of the latest additions to my movie collection is the classic movie It! This is a ground breaking film full of all the things that make some of these movies so enjoyable.

A rescue mission is sent to Mars to find survivors from a crash. One survivor is found and he is charged with the deaths of the rest of the crew as he has no explanation for their disappearance. But before they leave the surface, something gets into the ship and soon the crew becomes aware that something is not right on the ship. Then the bodies are found and the crew goes on the defensive. Impervious to bullets and grenades and capable of tearing open the hatches, the creature poses an immediate threat to everyone on board. What follows are scenes of the crew trying to stop the creature and remain alive.

It! is possibly the first film dealing with an unstoppable monster on a ship. For its age, this film is quite violent. There are hilarious scenes where the female members of the crew are left to clear the tables while the men sit and talk. File cabinets fill the ship. Other low tech equipment abounds. A fun film and a true classic.