What makes this stand out from other sci-fi monster flicks of its era is the script.
To kick off The Halloween Fifteen for 2025, I’m going all the way back to the late 1950s with It! The Terror from Beyond Space. Directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Jerome Bixby, this is a classic rubber-suit monster movie that’s much smarter than its B-movie trappings might suggest.
The story begins with a rescue mission to Mars. The first manned ship has crashed, and only one survivor remains: Colonel Carruthers (Marshall Thompson). He’s immediately suspected of murdering his crew for food rations. But as Carruthers insists, something else killed them—and that “something” manages to stow away on the rescue ship back to Earth. Soon, the crew is trapped in a claustrophobic space vessel, being hunted down one by one.
What makes this stand out from other sci-fi monster flicks of its era is the script. Jerome Bixby—who would go on to pen classic Star Trek episodes, Fantastic Voyage, and The Man from Earth—gives the dialogue more intelligence than you’d expect. There’s even a surprising amount of pseudo-scientific detail that lends weight to what could’ve been a very flimsy premise.
That said, this is still very much a low-budget ‘50s creature feature. The sets are simple, the spaceship interiors repetitive, and the monster suit looks exactly as cheap as you’d imagine. The women in the crew, while technically astronauts, are mostly relegated to stereotypical roles like serving coffee and tending wounds. Still, for its time, the inclusion of female crew members at all feels notable.
Despite the budget restraints, the film builds suspense well. The monster pushes the survivors upward through the ship level by level, creating a tense cat-and-mouse structure. There’s even a surprisingly effective jump scare—something you don’t often get in movies of this type.
One of the most interesting aspects is its influence. It’s often cited as inspiration for Alien (1979), and you can definitely see the DNA: a hostile alien killing off a confined crew in space, one by one. Of course, Ridley Scott’s film took the concept to an entirely different level, but this feels like an early draft of that idea.
Ultimately, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is a fun relic of ‘50s drive-in cinema. It’s not a masterpiece, and the monster costume keeps it firmly in B-movie territory, but the pacing, suspense, and solid script elevate it above the average. For me, it’s not essential viewing, but definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of old-school sci-fi horror.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
