It Came from Outer Space

  • USA Atomic Monster (working title) (more)
Trailer

VOD (1)

Plots(1)

A meteor crashes in the desert near a small Arizona town, and research scientist John Putnam (Richard Carlson) thinks it's a spaceship, but no one will believe him except his loyal girlfriend, Ellen (Barbara Rush). Weird evidence begins to back up his theory however, from the strange behavior of some of the locals, to the slime trails, the ghostly noises in the phone lines, and the apparitions of hideous alien eyes swooping down on passing cars. (official distributor synopsis)

(more)

Videos (1)

Trailer

Reviews (2)

Lima 

all reviews of this user

English Poster tagline: SPECTACULAR! REACHING FROM THE SCREEN TO SEIZE YOU IN ITS GRASP! Rather than good sci-fi, I think of it as a perfect relic of an era. With this, Jack Arnold perfectly tapped into the era of McCarthyism, when American society was gripped by the fear of creeping communism, with aliens playing that role here. At first it doesn't really work, it’s haphazardly proportioned (an explosion with a crater like this would wipe out half of California), but after a monologue about the fear of being bugged, the film takes on a proper paranoid air, with concerns about infiltration by alien forces, and the fact that the aliens here are actually good characters who just want time to fix their spaceship, giving it an unusual paradoxical flair. The film was also ahead of its time in being the first to show the possibility of aliens taking on the bodies of ordinary citizens (which was used successfully several times in the years that followed). There are also some nice visual effects sequences (the laser gun), but above all I am grateful to this film for launching Jack Arnold's successful career in the 1950s, after his great success in the cinema, and cementing him as one of the best ever science fiction directors of the Golden Age. ()

kaylin 

all reviews of this user

English Another fine example of what was great filmmaking in the 1950s. This was simply the golden period of science fiction that wasn't yet high budget, but just wanted to show us a threat. Personally, I couldn't care less about Cold War metaphors because these films work great just as they are. Stories full of fantasy and paranoia, with beautiful, old-fashioned, yet irreplaceable tricks and effects. ()

Ads

Gallery (73)