Sometimes IT happens! Sometimes you’re IT out of luck. Sometimes IT hits the fan, and when it does, there is IT everywhere)! Just ask the lone survivor Col. Edward Carruthers, whose entire crew was massecured by a vampire martian with a nasty case of eczema and a giant tongue to raspberry anyone who tries to kill IT. However, most creatures from these science fiction (double feature) monster-run-amok shockers are misunderstood. How would you feel if you wandered innocently onto a nuclear-powered sardine can and blasted thousands of miles from your home? You might be a little perturbed, just like this creature, who not only is lost in space, shot at in space, and has grenades thrown at IT in space (let me reiterate for those who were picking their nose in science class: [cough] THEY SHOT BULLETS AND GRENADES AT IT INSIDE A SPACESHIP!). Say what you want about the dangers of alien enemies from a different planet (we invaded, unwelcomed) I paid attention in high school English when we read The Most Dangerous Game so I’m well aware man is the most dangerous creature in the galaxy, yet lock-up a lizard looking behemoth under several floors of tin foil like the crew does in IT! The Terror from Beyond Space and you’ll understand the alien’s face which says “I’m too old for this IT…”
IT might not come as a surprise to anyone who is a film snob, but this film was a huge influence on the plot of the out-of-the-world hit Alien in the 70s, and just like the cast and crew on that cinematic nightmare, the making of this film was not a happy one for all those involved. Seeing what other movies came out during this period, big-time producer Edwar Small (who made epics like Witness for the Prosecution and Solomon and Sheba) wanted to save a few bucks (and finally live up to his name) by producing a couple of tiny double-bill creature features. Like a small fish in a big pond (or solar system), Small seemed out of his element and the cast and crew let him know IT. Stories of the lead actress Shawn Smith fuming for being cast in a small (no pun intended this time) budget film to lead actor Ray Corrigan showing up five hundred sheets to the wind make IT seem impossible the film was made at all, yet nothing tops the reason for the alien sticking IT’s tongue out. According to AIP make-up giant Paul Blaisdale (Day the World Ended and The She-Creature), who designed IT, Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan was the man inside the suit who refused to travel over to Blaisdale’s house for make-up tests, so when Blaisdale made the suit too short the solution was to paint a tongue on Corrigan’s chin which sticks out of the mask (way to make IT work). Thin on plot, thin on realistic space science (as if any of you cared), and thin on time, there are several thick and juicy things the film offers, like great camera movement by cinematographer Kenneth Peach (whose career expanded from The Outer Limits to Taxi) and a solid soundtrack by Paul Sawtell (The Fly and The Return of the Fly ) and Bert Shefter (Curse of the Fly and Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!). IT could have been way worse with all these elements working against the production!
When an S.O.S. from Mars is sent out, warning all the crew is dead except Col. Edward Carruthers, the Science Advisory Committee Division of Interplanetary Exploration (which has a way better feel than plain old NASA) sends another crew to rescue him. Upon their arrival they find the crew wasn’t just dead, they might have been murdered (the bullet hole in the head was a dead giveaway). However, Carruthers swears IT wasn’t him, IT was a one-armed, one-horned, flying purple people eater (oo, ee, oo, ah, ah). Commander Col. Van Heusen and crew don’t believe a word he says and they shoot off like a bottle rocket not seen since the likes of The Three Stooges in Orbit, but not before a stowaway claws its way into the cargo bay. As the bodies start to go missing the crew has a change of heart (adorable) for Caruthers, especially when their captain is sliced and diced in the air duct system (wait a minute? Haven’t I seen this plot before, but better?). As they trap the alien below decks with bullets and grenades exploding (cause, you know, they won’t break the hull or anything) will the crew get rid of IT before IT gets rid of them?
Taking no IT at a stinky sixty-nine minutes, and directed by Edward L. Cahn (who directed other stellar hits like Creature with the Atom Brain and Zombies of Mora Tau), the film was released on a double bill with another Small (but big-hearted) Monster called Curse of the Faceless Man (oddly also directed by Cahn. Wait for it… CAHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). You can find this on most streaming platforms and a special edition Blu-ray, but for true collectors of home media try to find the double feature version from ‘MGM Midnight Movies’ alongside The Monster That Challenged the World. So the next time you get stranded on Mars in a small can-of-SPAM-rocket, check what lurks around the corner and prepare to defend the world because you’re about to step into one big pile of IT!
