View source for It! The Terror from Beyond Space

{{Short description|1958 film by Edward L. Cahn}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = It! The Terror from Beyond Space
| image          = It the terror from beyond space.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Edward L. Cahn]]
| producer       = [[Robert E. Kent|Robert Kent]]<br>[[Edward Small]] (uncredited)
| writer         = [[Jerome Bixby]]
| starring       = [[Marshall Thompson]]<br>Shawn Smith ([[Shirley Patterson]])<br>[[Kim Spalding]]<br>Dabbs Greer<br>Ray "Crash" Corrigan
| narrator       = Marshall Thompson
| music          = [[Paul Sawtell]]<br>[[Bert Shefter]]
| cinematography = [[Kenneth Peach]]
| studio         = Vogue Pictures, Inc.
| editing        = [[Grant Whytock]]
| distributor    = [[United Artists]]
| released       = {{Film date|1958|08|14}}
| runtime        = 69 minutes 
| country        = United States 
| language       = English
| budget         = 
}}

'''''It! The Terror from Beyond Space''''' is an [[Independent film|independently made]] 1958 American [[science fiction horror film]], produced by [[Robert E. Kent|Robert Kent]], directed by [[Edward L. Cahn]], that stars [[Marshall Thompson]], Shawn Smith ([[Shirley Patterson]]), and [[Kim Spalding]].<ref>Warren 2000, p. 160.</ref> The film was distributed by [[United Artists]] as a [[double feature]] with ''[[Curse of the Faceless Man]]''.<ref name="PM">Maçek III, J.C. [https://popmatters.com/pm/column/165516-building-the-perfect-star-beast-the-antecedents-of-alien/ "Building the Perfect Star Beast: The Antecedents of 'Alien'."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127172302/https://popmatters.com/pm/column/165516-building-the-perfect-star-beast-the-antecedents-of-alien |date=2012-11-27}} ''[[PopMatters]]'', November 21, 2012.</ref>

The story involves Earth's second mission to [[Mars]] to discover the fate of the Challenge 141 and its crew. Only a single survivor is found still alive from that crashed spaceship. The survivor, the expedition's former commander, claims that his crew was killed by a hostile Martian [[life form]]. No one from the rescue ship believes him until the creature, now a stowaway, begins hunting the crew on their return trip to Earth.

The film's premise has been cited as an inspiration for [[screenwriter]] [[Dan O'Bannon]]'s screenplay for [[Ridley Scott]]'s classic 1979 film ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]''.<ref name="PM"/>

{{TOC limit|limit=2}}

==Plot==
In 1973, a [[Nuclear power|nuclear-powered]] [[Spacecraft|spaceship]] blasts off from Mars for Earth, bringing with it the sole survivor of the first mission, Col. Edward Carruthers. He is suspected of having murdered the other nine members of his crew for their food and water rations, on the premise that he had no way of knowing if or when an Earth rescue mission would ever arrive. Carruthers denies this allegation, attributing his crew's deaths to a hostile humanoid life form on the [[Mars|Red Planet]].

Commander Col. Van Heusen is unconvinced and makes sure that Carruthers is constantly accompanied by another member of his crew. While the ship was on the Martian surface, an emergency hatch had been left open, allowing the creature easy access. The crew is at first skeptical that something crawled aboard while they were on Mars. However, when Kienholz investigates odd sounds coming from a lower level, he is killed and his body hidden in an air duct. Next is Gino Finelli. He is found, barely alive, but the creature attacks his would-be rescuer. Bullets have no effect, forcing the crewman to leave Gino behind, much to the distress of his brother Bob. An autopsy of Kienholz's body reveals that it has been sucked dry of all fluids.

The crew use [[hand grenade]]s and [[Hand grenade#Chemical and gas|gas grenade]]s, but the creature proves to be immune to both. They next try electrocution, also with no effect. When "It" is tricked into going into the spaceship's atomic reactor room, they shut the heavily shielded door and expose the creature directly to the ship's [[nuclear pile]]. It easily crashes through the door and escapes. The creature is so strong that it can tear through the metal hatches separating each of the ship's levels. The survivors (except for an injured crewman, who is trapped below in a spot inaccessible to the creature) retreat to the control room on the topmost deck. When Carruthers notices the ship's higher-than-normal oxygen consumption rate, he surmises that this is due to the creature's larger lung capacity, needed for the thin Martian atmosphere. In a last desperate move, everyone puts on their spacesuits, and Carruthers opens the command deck's hull airlock directly to the vacuum of space. A violent [[Uncontrolled decompression|decompression]] follows, and the plan works: "It" suffocates and finally expires, stuck part way through the final hatch.

A press conference is later held on Earth, revealing the details of what happened aboard the rescue ship. The project director emphasizes that Earth may now be forced to bypass the Red Planet "because another word for Mars is Death".

==Cast==
{{div col}}
* [[Marshall Thompson]] as Col. Edward Carruthers
* [[Shirley Patterson]] as Ann Anderson (as Shawn Smith)
* [[Kim Spalding]] as Col. Van Heusen
* [[Dabbs Greer]] as Eric Royce
* [[Paul Langton]] as Lt. James Calder
* [[Robert Bice]] as Maj. John Purdue
* [[Richard Benedict]] as Bob Finelli
* [[Ann Doran]] as Mary Royce 
* Richard Hervey as Gino Finelli
* Thom Carney as Joe Kienholz
* [[Ray Corrigan]] as It
{{div col end}}

==Production==
{{expand section|date=November 2016}}
[[File:Bel-Air Drive-in Ad - 1 November 1958, Fontana, CA.jpg|thumb|right|[[Drive-in theater|Drive-in]] advertisement from 1958 featuring ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' with companion feature, ''[[Curse of the Faceless Man]]''.]]
''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' was financed by [[Edward Small]] and was originally known as '''''It! The Vampire from Beyond Space'''''.<ref>Scheuer, Philip K. "Kristin' seen as challenge: Kaufman phones Terry Moore; 'Diamonds' polished for Laage". ''Los Angeles Times'', November 21, 1957, p. C11.</ref> Principal photography took place over a two-week period during mid-January 1958. Small kept changing his mind over whether or not he wanted plastic eyes installed in the creature's mask, causing a lot of aggravation for the film's makeup artist, [[Paul Blaisdell]].<ref>[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/22852/It-The-Terror-from-Beyond-Space/original-print-inf.html "Original print information: "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"]{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">Palmer, Randy (2009). Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist. McFarland & Company. ISBN  978-0786440993.</ref>

''It!'' was the last film of actor [[Ray Corrigan|Ray "Crash" Corrigan]]. Corrigan was set to play the creature, but during pre-production, he did not want to travel over to [[Topanga]] Canyon in western [[Los Angeles County]] where [[Paul Blaisdell]] lived and operated his studio. Therefore, Blaisdell could not take exact measurements of Corrigan's head. Consequently, there were final fit problems with the creature's head prop: "[Corrigan's]...bulbous chin stuck out through the monster's mouth, so the make-up man painted his chin to look like a tongue". Blaisdell then added a bottom row of fangs that covered Corrigan's jutting chin.<ref name="Articles">Stafford, Jeff. [https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/88234 "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"], [https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/88234] ''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.</ref>

Blaisdell said working for United Artists wasn't nearly as happy an experience as working at AIP was for him. As filming progressed, Ray Corrigan turned up drunk on the set a few times, refused to follow certain directions from Ed Cahn and even damaged the monster suit, causing Blaisdell to be called in to do a couple of quick "patch-up" jobs. Blaisdell said it wasn't a happy set, what with Corrigan drunk on and off, and the film's female star Shawn Smith constantly in a bad mood, furious that she had been cast in a low-budget monster film. Blaisdell said only [[Marshall Thompson]] seemed to be enjoying himself.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> The creature costume became the property of UA, and wound up a year later showing up in their 1959 John Agar opus, ''Invisible Invaders'' (without paying Blaisdell for reusing his props). More information on the production can be found on the audio commentary for Kino Lorber's 2023 Blu-ray: Blaisdell's assistant Bob Burns is on the commentary track along with Tom Weaver, Larry Blamire and David Schecter.

==Reception==
{{expand section|date=November 2016}}
At the film [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on {{nowrap|16 reviews}}, with a [[weighted average]] rating of 5.9/10.<ref name="rottomatoes">{{cite web|title=It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) - Rotten Tomatoes|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_the_terror_from_beyond_space/|website=Rotten Tomatoes.com|publisher=Flixer|access-date=27 April 2018|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042516/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_the_terror_from_beyond_space/|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' noted that the creature was the star: "'It' is a Martian by birth, a Frankenstein by instinct, and a copycat. The monster dies hard, brushing aside grenades, bullets, gas and an atomic pile, before snorting its last snort. It's old stuff, with only a slight twist".<ref>[https://variety.com/1957/film/reviews/it-the-terror-from-beyond-space-1200419112/ "Review: 'It! – The Terror from Beyond Space'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150112142813/https://variety.com/1957/film/reviews/it-the-terror-from-beyond-space-1200419112/ |date=2015-01-12}} ''Variety'', December 31, 1957. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.</ref> A retrospective film review by Dennis Schwartz favorably compared ''It!'' with ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]'', a classic 1979 film that borrowed its [[creature feature]] plot liberally from its earlier counterpart.<ref>[http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/ittheterrorfrombeyond.htm "It! The Terror from Beyond Space"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305012715/http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/ittheterrorfrombeyond.htm |date=2016-03-05}} ''Ozus' World Movie Reviews'', September 23, 2001. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.</ref>

==Adaptations==
In 1992, [[Millennium Publications]] adapted ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' as a short-run comic book series, written by [[Mark Ellis (American author)|Mark Ellis]] and Dean Zachary.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} A further comics adaptation was released by [[IDW Publishing|''Midnite Movies'' (IDW Publishing)]] in 2010, for a three-issue run.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

==See also==
* [[List of films set on Mars]]

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* Strick, Philip. ''Science Fiction Movies''. London: Octopus Books Limited. 1976. {{ISBN|0-7064-0470-X}}.
* Palmer, Randy. ''Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-78644-099-3}}.
* Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties 21st Century Edition''. 2009. McFarland & Company. {{ISBN|0-89950-032-3}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0051786|It! The Terror From Beyond Space}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/it%21-the-terror-from-beyond-space-am39709 ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' at AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|22852|It! The Terror From Beyond Space}}
* {{AFI film|id=52617|title=It! The Terror From Beyond Space}}
* {{Rotten tomatoes|it_the_terror_from_beyond_space|It! The Terror From Beyond Space}}
* [https://www.mmmrecordings.com/It-_The_Terror/it-_the_terror.html Original soundtrack of Paul Sawtell's and Bert Shefter's score from ''It! The Terror From Beyond Space'']

{{Edward L. Cahn}}
{{Edward Small}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:It The Terror From Beyond Space}}
[[Category:1958 films]]
[[Category:1958 horror films]]
[[Category:1958 independent films]]
[[Category:1950s science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s monster movies]]
[[Category:1950s exploitation films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:Films about astronauts]]
[[Category:Films about extraterrestrial life]]
[[Category:Films directed by Edward L. Cahn]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Jerome Bixby]]
[[Category:Films scored by Paul Sawtell]]
[[Category:Films scored by Bert Shefter]]
[[Category:Films set in 1973]]
[[Category:Films set in the future]]
[[Category:Mars in film]]
[[Category:American monster movies]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:American exploitation films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:Films set on spacecraft]]