It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
- Andrew Smith
- 22 hours ago
- 5 min read
"It breathes! It hunts! It kills!"
Plot
In 1973, the first manned flight to Mars is marooned on the planet after communication is lost and by the time the rescue ship arrives, there is only one survivor. He claims that the crew were decimated by an alien lifeform, but no one will believe his story. That is until the life form stows away on the rescue ship for the voyage back to Earth.
Review
Don't let the title fool you into thinking this is just some cheap and trashy 50s sci-fi flick. It! The Terror from Beyond Space is clearly the monster movie blueprint on which Ridley Scott based Alien - trapping a group of people aboard a spaceship and letting a deadly alien loose amongst them. It lacks the shocks, the nightmarish creation by H.R. Giger, the great characters and above all, the massive financial budget, of Scott's classic but considering the sort of company that It! The Terror from Beyond Space was keeping at the time it was made (the never-ending scores of atomic monster movies) it was like a breath of fresh air. If you strip away the budget, the creature design, and the character depth, the core structural mechanics of both films are identical. Just think of how many times this plot has since been rehashed and copied over the years from big screen blockbusters to smaller B-movies and even video games. It had to begin somewhere. It! The Terror from Beyond Space pivoted the sci-fi horror vector from monsters invading our world to humans trapped in a world where the monster has the absolute tactical advantage.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space was never seen as the forefather of the the 'alien kills off crew in confined space' sci-fi horror upon its release but rather as another version of The Thing from Another World, only swapping the frozen wastes of the Antarctic for the coldness of outer space. How no one could have predicted the influence both films would have. Its surprising in this case as the film must have one of the shortest running times I've ever seen for a feature film and it's a pity because I reckon this had plenty more mileage in the tank if they wanted to stretch the build-up out a bit more. Thankfully with the film being so short on length, time isn't wasted and it's not too long before the alien begins to kill off the crew. Because the runtime is so constrained, absolutely no screen time is wasted on unnecessary exposition or a dragging second act. The pacing becomes incredibly merciless. The alien begins picking off the crew almost immediately after they realise it's on board. The short run time mimics the frantic accelerating panic of the characters themselves. There's no time to breathe for the crew and consequently no time to breathe for the audience. We just get caught up in this whirlwind of carnage without getting a chance to settle down.
The environmental storytelling is arguably It! The Terror from Beyond's strongest asset. The sets are small and cramped, letting loose with the claustrophobic atmosphere and keeping everything in close quarters. The vessel isn't a sprawling labyrinth. It consists of only a few small vertical levels. Just going up and down so it's not like the characters can play and hide and seek with the alien for too long. It's this sense of proximity which adds imminent danger to everyone involved. There's literally no long game of hide and seek available to these characters. None. They don't have a massive commercial towing vehicle like the Nostromo to disappear into, they simply run out of places to retreat to. The alien keeps advancing, moving level by level, and there are only so many steel doors the crew can lock behind them before they're completely backed into a corner. This acute sense of proximity is what injects imminent danger into every single scene. As a viewer, you are given the distinct, suffocating impression that the alien is within touching distance of the characters at all times. It is right on the other side of the bulkhead. That constant, inescapable closeness forces the audience to share the character's claustrophobia.
There is a great deal of suspense to be had when you don't see what is doing the killing. The classic ‘less is more’ approach. The suspense reaches its peak precisely because the filmmakers refuse to show you what is doing the killing for a large portion of the film, keeping the alien hidden in shadows, simply off-screen. They purposefully obscure the creature for a very long time. By denying the audience a clear, well-lit shot of the monster, the filmmakers forced the viewer's brain to project its own worst nightmares into those dark corners. Take for instance the scene inside the air vent. The scene involves a character being forced to crawl through a tight, pitch-black, metallic air duct, fully aware that a lethal creature is navigating that exact same ventilation system. The physical constraint of the duct, combined with the complete lack of visibility and the metallic echoing of movement, creates a paralyzing sense of vulnerability. With a bigger budget and a better-looking monster, you saw this air vent scene live up to its potential in Alien when Tom Skeritt’s Dallas goes hunting for the creature, only realising too late that he’s the one being hunted. In the brief moments you do get a glimpse of the alien, the creature looks terrifying. It uses its physical strength to smash down steel doors and kills people by breaking their bones and sucking their bodily fluid dry. I remember being scared by this alien as kid.
Unfortunately, any sort of fear factor the alien may have had is instantly neutralised when it finally emerges from the shadows and shows itself in full. I'm guessing it would have looked scary in the 50s but looking back now, it's one of those ‘look you can see the zipper’ alien costumes that a lot of modern people fondly remember from this era but were a hallmark of the era's severe practical limitations. Once it has been revealed to the audience, the creature obviously likes basking in the limelight because you can't get rid of the thing off the screen. It's as if they finally perfected the lighting on this cumbersome rubber suit and thought “we paid for the costume, we're gonna make sure the audience sees every single inch of it.” Less was definitely better and certainly more frightening.
Marshall Thompson had a solid 1958, starring in this and another quality sci-fi horror that comes highly recommended from this decade, Fiend Without a Face. He does the no-nonsense military routine down to a tee. But this is hardly an actor’s film.
Final Verdict
It! The Terror from Beyond Space looks extremely dated now but it still manages to deliver the goods and, for its time, it's pretty atmospheric. You can't knock its influence on the sci-fi horror genre, that's for sure. It is a foundational text. Without this fictional marooned Mars crew in 1973 running out of physical levels to retreat to as they’re chased by a killer alien, the entire sub-genre might look radically different. We might never have experienced the sheer terror of the Nostromo. The entire concept of survival horror in space owes a debt to this blueprint.
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It! The Terror from Beyond Space Director(s): Edward L. Cahn Writer(s): Jerome Bixby Actor(s): Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Paul Langton, Robert Bice, Richard Benedict Duration: 68 mins |  |
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