I never laughed so hard! Was it ever used for Mystery Science Theater? Seriously, this movie is hilarious! A must see for any sci-fi fan who loves the cheese. Especially when Bob returns to his blow torch after a mishapped rescue!
shareI'm particularly fond of the hand grenades wired to the air duct. The bazooka is pretty funny too. Always wondered who thought it was a good idea to take a bazooka to Mars.
shareDoes this remind no one of Alien? Shorn of the better special effects, etc.?
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Totally reminded me of Alien - to the point where I would call Alien a remake. Alien stows away, starts taking out the crew one by one - and then how to they kill it?
shareI definitely see the similarities with Alien. Although I saw It! first as a midnight movie on a local network a year before Alien was released, at 10 years old, I wasn't comparing movies like that yet. Alien was my first R film. It was years later when I finally saw the movies with more mature eyes.
Both movies were greatly influenced by a couple of short stories by A.E. Van Vogt - especially "The Black Destroyer."
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"I'm particularly fond of the hand grenades wired to the air duct."
I liked how he wired like ten grenades at once, because one or two certainly wouldn't have been enough.
Yes, one of the funniest sci-fi movies of the 50s, some of which were outstanding and quite good considering the limited special effects of those days. You have to laugh at the extra-vehicular walk where they turned the camera 90 degrees to show them walking "up" the side of the ship. As if there was an "up" out there. That, along with the varying scrolling star fields, the monster's loose costume that looked like sagging, pouchy hide plus hand grenades and a bazooka going off in the ship put it in a class with Plan 9 From Outer Space. A cult classic with practically a laugh a minute. Well worth watching for a sci-fi fan.
share"Well, yes, it does. I'm sure Ridley Scott saw it as a child and was affected by the wonderfulness of it."
No, Ridley Scott spoke about how he knew absolutely nothing about science fiction movies beforehand...was never interested in them at all. He saw this as more of a horror exercise. The writer of the original Alien script, Dan O'Bannon, was raised on 1950's science fiction monster movies, and used IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE and most notably, Mario Bava's PLANET OF VAMPIRES as, shall we say, "inspiration?"
The producers bought and rewrote the script, slightly, having no idea about the "origins" of the Alien script.
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The funniest part is when the cigarette sticks to Gino's lip and he needs three tries to push the cigarette off his lip with his tongue .Its supposed to fall out from fright as Gino is startled by IT !
''You just found yourself into somethin' you ain't never gettin' out of !''
Young children were actually frightened watching on a big screen. But adults were laughing as hard as you think they might. Even with the limited experiences of space travel, I'm pretty sure that people in rubber suits weren't scary, and that a spaceship can only travel up...? Also, the MANY safety violations are hysterical, as are using a Bazooka at point blank range...incredible..Whoever wrote the script, didn't have a clue as to how space travel MIGHT be...Smoking in a Spaceship...Really...? Classic...
I thought the monster(Ray Corrigan) was great, hamming it up ...
One of the funniest films ever made...unintentionally , of course...
The audience didn't laugh when I saw it as a child. I think people rewrite history in their minds because they're embarrassed that they might have enjoyed a low-budget "flick". Back then, any trip to the theater was treasured, especially for lovers of science fiction and horror. People did not laugh at movies unless there was a funny line or it was a comedy. I don't think people back then were as nitpicky as they are nowadays. We just sat back and enjoyed it all. I don't recall anyone at any time walking out of a movie complaining about it or attacking it, tearing it apart. It was simply another experience though some of us found various films more memorable than others. Maybe this was because we could not have imagined films being readily available someday. Generally, until early TV picked up movies to use as time-fillers, one viewing was all most of us ever got. Yet, think how long we remembered some of these!
I'm watching the film right now on TCM, with John Carpenter as the host. He selected three movies for them to show: "The Thing from Another World", "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", and "The Curse of Frankenstein". All three bridge science fiction and horror.
But, it's true: It is weird to see explosives used to do battle in a "rocketship".
~~MystMoonstruck~~
Watching it too , The funny part for Me is when they are all talking
at once on the top deck and the Mars creature covers up his ears and
looks up .
It scared Me when I was a little kid though .
The Ship is huge on the inside .
What's really strange is that it's set in such a near future: 1973. You'd think that they would have gone for the 2000s, not such a brief hop forward.
When the creature growls, I'm always reminded of Boris Karloff's Monster in "Frankenstein". He hated fire, too! Cinematic Rule No. 33: Monsters and torches of any kind do not mix.
~~MystMoonstruck~~
Considering the film was made BEFORE there was any human space travel, there was NO contrast. Since then, with a model to compare with, the films drama disolves, for Adults, but children maybe more wide-eyed. Whether John Carpenter endorses the film or not, there is a good use of lighting and camera angles, but really, trying to suffocate a creature form a world without much oxygen, not gonna happen. He, the creature(probably) has an evolutionary adaptive quality. I like the film, but 50 years ago, it was more effective.
share"It's enough to kill 100 men!" This made me lol. Apparently in the future the strength of everything is measured by how many men it would kill.
Still, this movie was WAYYYY closer to ALIEN/ALIENS than I would have thought possible.
The "weapons layout" scene in ALIENS is so close it almost had to be a direct homage.
The line I mentioned above, the "blowtorch defense," and the Monster's "'unga-Bunga-shadow-death-blow'" routine were primo.
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Apparently in the future the strength of everything is measured by how many men it would kill.
Wouldn't all those grenades have blown a hole in the ship? The way they wired them to the screens looked like if the creature pushed them open the grenades wouldn't have went off. It would have had to pull them (while inside the duct)to make the pins come out. And they sure had alot of glass jars and coffee pots around. Also the smoking in that small room was weird.
The space helmets were put on and just TUCKED into the spacesuit! How did they walk on the outside of the ship? Antigrav boots? And how many time did they have to keep opening the hatch to check on the creature? That one time it was almost in! And as strong as it was supposed to be it should have gotten in. It was still entertaining.
Funniest ever? I take it you haven´t seen Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman from the same year.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
they should have sent in the Colonial Marines. that would have removed the smile from your face
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