It! The Terror from Beyond Space

A sci-fi monster movie about an ill-fated Mars expedition, this low budget 1958 space horror flick was a major inspiration for 1979's Alien. Marshall Thompson stars as Col. Edward Carruthers, sole survivor of the first mission to Mars. Accused of murdering his colleagues, Carruthers is taken back to Earth for trial by a rescue team—along with a lizard-like stowaway that continues its killing spree. The special effects are on the cheap side, with a man in a rubber suit as the creature, crawling out of ventilation shafts and clawing through steel hatch doors. Plausibility takes a decided backseat as the astronauts can fire hand guns, launch grenades, and even shoot off a bazooka in a pressurized space ship while fighting the thing off. But even with the production limitations, the film still has its charms. Simple optical effects effectively send two of the crewmen on a spacewalk down the exterior hull of the rocketing ship to ambush the creature, and a real-life blowtorch makes for an effective weapon. Directed by Edward L. Cahn, this minor cult film (scripted by Jerome Bixby, who also wrote for the original Star Trek series) will strike most contemporary viewers as pure kitsch. Optional. (S. Axmaker)