It Came from Outer Space Year: 1953 Director: Jack Arnold Written by: Harry Essex Based on: story by Ray Bradbury Threat: Aliens Weapon of Choice: Pistol IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
It Came from Outer Space II (1996)

Rish's Reviews
"And at a deadly pace, it came from outer space; And this is how the message ran . . ."
It Came From Outer Space, written and directed by the creators of The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and featuring the star of that film, Richard Carlson, tells the story of a couple who witness the crash of a fireball out in the desert. When they investigate, they find that it was not a meteor, but a spacecraft of some sort, now covered up by rock and dirt. No one believes that there could be spacemen out there, but those who get too close end up . . . changed by what they encounter. What really crashed there in the desert and why? What kind of passengers did it hold? And what are their intentions?
A few years back, I claimed that the Fifties only produced one good horror movie. But I hadn't seen The Fly then, or Creature From the Black Lagoon, or House of Wax, so I was mistaken. And I'm glad to be.
I have been fortunate enough to see many, many great films at revival theatres of late. This one, I got to see, in a double bill with Black Lagoon in glorious monochromatic 3-D. It's an experience I'd wish on my best friend, best girl, and favourite uncle.
And this was a really fine film, with one of the best titles for a Sci-Fi movie ever. There was a romantic simplicity to this movie that made me yearn for a bygone era that may never actually have existed. The music (by Henry Mancini even) featured that strangest of all instruments: the theramin.
Jack Arnold, who also directed The Incredible Shrinking Man and Tarantula, should well be remembered as one of the best directors of the Fifties. Sadly, he went on to direct episodes of "Sheriff Lobo" and "The Brady Bunch." Oh well, at least he was a producer on "Gilligan's Island."
And speaking of that island, Russell "The Professor" Johnson appears as a townsperson who runs afoul of the visitors, which we see the point-of-view of via an early use of the Camera-Is-Killer technique. It works pretty well, too. The aliens are somewhat silly-looking by today's standards, but are still quite well done, especially when we see them attack someone from their distorted (rippling camera effect) perspective. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that, fifty years from now, these aliens will hold up MUCH better than the personality-free CGI monsters of today's films.
The aliens were really interesting, having crash-landed on earth many years before they intended to make contact with us. They realise that to us, they are hideously ugly, and that we would soil our overalls if we saw them. I like that. I don't really understand the point of the aliens stealing people's clothing since they can replicate clothing anyway, but ah well.
The film isn't excellent. But it's very good. And 3-D is always cool.
I'd Recommend It To: Sci-Fi fans, especially of films from the Fifties.
Posted: October 17, 2005

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears		Russell Johnson
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?