Tag: Body Snatchers

1950’s Horror Double Bill

Posted on by fenrisfil

Time for another horror double bill. This time we’re hitting the 1950’s for some classic horror science fiction. This was a popular sub genre in the fifties and in truth swayed more to science fiction but usually meant some kind of monster was involved along the way. No exception with this duo. So for your enjoyment I give you “It Came From Outer Space” from 1953 and “Day The World Ended” from 1955.

It Came From Outta Space (1953)

First up is the sci-fi horror classic: “It came from outta space” from 1953. This was originally released as a 3D movie as part of the first wave of that gimmick in the fifties. Indeed this was actually Universals first 3D movie. The movie is directed by Jack Arnold, often regarded one of the masters of sci-fi horror in the 1950’s. His other works include “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954), “Tarantula” (1955), and “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957). The story comes from prolific science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. It stars Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush, with support from Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer, and Russell Johnson.

A large meteorite crashes near the small town of Sand Rock, Arizona. Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam (Carson) investigates and realizes this is not a meteorite but a crashed space ship. Shortly after a landslide buries the spacecraft and as the only witness John has trouble convincing others to believe him. His girlfriend Ellen is the only one willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and helps him investigate. Over the next few days people start disappearing. Occasionally turning up apparently dazed and distant. Convinced this is something to do with the ship, John convinces the local sheriff (Drake) to assist. The question is, what do these visitors intend? Are they actually a threat?

The Night The Earth Will Never Forget

It’s worth noting this movie predates Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but not the Puppet Masters novel by Robert Heinlein. So at this point a movie where aliens assume the identity of regular people from a small town was a pretty fresh idea. Yet, through the lens of the modern day this could be seen as a subversion of that theme as the Aliens are not doing this as part of an invasion. The 50’s did actually have a fair mixture of benevolent and malevolent aliens. As is typical with the former types there is somewhat of a judgement against humanity on display here. Again, through a modern lens this is a little cliched but in the early 50’s this trope was only just starting to be established.

I’m not sure why this was a 3D movie. It’s not exactly action heavy and is actually quite slow in places. Then again I could probably say that about half the 3D movies that were ever released. While the 3D is wasted, I also don’t find too much horror in this story. The replacement of people doesn’t lead to much in the way of paranoia. The abduction scenes show very little and look dated. Last but not least, the aliens only reveal their true form once and only in a peaceful setting. They did pretty cool though and very unique. Not as good as the “War of the Worlds” aliens from the same year, but that movie had more than double the budget. The science fiction elements have aged far better than the horror ones.

Conclusion

This is a straight forward science fiction story with mild horror elements. It would have been fairly original in it’s time, but feels cliched now. Likewise the alien when it is revealed would have been a lot more impressive 71 years ago. I’m not sure the 3D would have impressed even in the day, but I can only judge that based on the lack of action on screen since I don’t have a 3D version. For the most part this feels like a decent TV movie. There’s not particularly wrong with it, the acting is fine, the directing is fine. But it’s all done without any real flourish to it. Overall this is a perfectly reasonable 5.5/10. Not recommended as a horror, but if you are a fan on old sci-fi it is worth watching.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Day The World Ended (1955)

For the second part of this double bill I’m reviewing the independent sci-fi/horror “Day The World Ended” from 1955. This is a post apocalyptic tale from the godfather of B-Movies, Roger Corman. This was actually his first full horror and his first in science fiction. Before then he’d only directed a couple of westerns and a handful of scenes for “The Beast With A Million Eyes”. The movie was written by Lou Rusoff (Who would later be a producer on another apocalyptic tale “Panic In Year Zero”). Richard Denning stars with support from Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Mike Connors and Paul Birch.

Set just after the events of an atomic war. A handful of survivors in an isolated box canyon find themselves cooped up in the home of former U.S. Navy Commander Jim Maddison (Birch) and his daughter Louise (Nelson). The visitors include small time hood Tony (Connors), his moll Ruby (Jergens), heroic geologist Rick (Denning), an irradiated and apparently dying man called Radek (Paul Dubov) and an old gold prospector called Pete (Raymond Hatton). They face three separate struggles for survival, the first against the dangers of radiation and the question of what the coming rain will bring. The second against the dangerous feral mutants that have appeared in this new irradiated world. The final struggle comes from inside and Tony’s plans to eliminate the other men and claim the rations and women for himself.

War Never Changes

I’ve always been a sucker for post apocalyptic fiction. Not only is it one of the great “What If”‘s of fiction, it always provides an excellent character study. Many of these films are effectively versions of the “Strangers in a room” story. These usually feature people sheltering from a storm, but this time the storm is radioactive. Usually these groups of people include at least one villain that drives a lot of the plot and this is no exception. Tony is clearly going to be a huge life threatening problem the whole way through. It’s hard not to see it as a plot hole that they don’t do anything about him until after he’s tried to take over the shelter several times, attempted to rape Louise and obviously killed his own girlfriend.

The rest of the film is focused on more far fetched science fiction elements. This is exactly the kind of 50’s science fiction that the “Fallout” video games took influence from. Indeed Radek, recovery from radiation sickness and how he now thrives on radiation is suspiciously similar to the Fallout concept of “Ghouls”. In this film, much like in the game radiation simply mutates a lot of the animals it makes contact with. The film doesn’t show us anything but sketches of most of these mutations, but the idea is to pave the way for the movies primary monster. The monster looks pretty good, but only turns up at the end and dies shortly after.

Conclusion

This is a somewhat stripped down movie that features a lot of good ideas that struggle to fit in to the run time. Certainly none of them get as fully developed as they deserve. The acting is passable, but at this point in his career Corman didn’t really direct the actors and that shows. The personalities of the characters come across as stereotypical archetypes. The monster looks pretty good for the age and limited budget and Corman certainly made the most of the sets. It’s a pretty impressive debut in the genre, but Roger would certainly do better later in his career. This ties with the other half of this double bill with a 5.5/10. If you like post apocalyptic tales and old sci-fi you will enjoy it.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Invaders From Mars (1953)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is a classic B-Movie Science Fiction Horror from the fifties. “Invaders from Mars” hit the theaters in 1953 and was the first movie to hit the big screen about alien body snatchers. This is far more Sci-Fi than Horror but it’s close enough to make my October viewing. It was also remade in the 1980’s by Tobe Hooper, so it was enough of a Horror to attract one of the genre’s masters to the remake. This version was written by Richard Blake and directed by William Cameron Menzies. It was an independent production based on an original script.

Body Snatchers!

Viewing Invaders From Mars for the first time seventy years after it came out requires us to have a little perspective on things. Obviously it has a lot of similarities to the Body Snatchers story, which is much more famous and manages a remake about once every couple of decades. However it’s worth noting that the first Body Snatchers movie came out three years after this one and even the novel on which it is based came out a year after this. However, while there may have been some influence it’s worth noting that Robert Heinlein’s story “The Puppet Masters” pre-dates both of these as it was released in 1951.

So why was this trope so common in the 50’s? Well, the Red Menace of course. I’m sure you already knew that since you can’t read anything about 50’s science fiction and horror without pages of someone talking about communism. So I’m not going to waste much of your time on that. That said, an insidious presence trying to take over a community from the inside for nefarious reasons is just as valid today as it was then (Perhaps more so), so it’s a great example of how timeless a movie can be when it’s message is kept as subtext and metaphor and isn’t too on the nose.

The Insidious Presence

This is very much a movie of two halves. The first part is Body Snatchers light. As mentioned above, not a knock off due to the timing of releases, but it doesn’t drive the concept anywhere near as hard as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. The other key difference is this movie has a child protagonist (“David”) who we follow from start to finish. David is played by Jimmy Hunt, who largely retired from acting not long after this movie but did return to take on the small role of the police chief in the 80’s remake. For what it’s worth he does a pretty good job here. Not the best performance I’ve seen from a child actor but perfectly serviceable.

The first half of the movie kicks off when David spots what appears to be a UFO landing in a Sandpit area near his house. After his father goes to check it out, he comes back changed. David starts to notice several other people have been changed including his mother, a girl neighbor of his and the Chief of Police. He eventually is listened to by a friendly police office and a Doctor that meet up with a local Astronomer that knows the boy and his father who confirms the boy isn’t prone to making stuff up. This is where the story shifts and the Martians deception becomes a lot less of an issue.

Turning The Tables

The second half of the movie is instead about the army trying to find a way to defeat these martians. At this point it becomes a fairly standard Sci-Fi affair but with a slight twist at the end of the story maybe being a dream (Or not, it’s unclear form the ending). This second half is pretty reasonable for a B-Movie Sci-Fi of the 1950’s, but doesn’t feature much of note outside of a pretty cool design for the Martian “Intelligence”, who was basically the Meekon with tentacles. Considering the effects limitations and budget this is surprisingly well executed. That said, there is a great deal of repeat footage in this section (Both of military convoys

The first half though is where most of the horror aspects lay and it’s done pretty well. Victims being sucked down into the sand by martians, the changed people’s cold aggressive attitude (Including a hard slap to David from his “Father” fairly early on) and the mystery of what they are up to all play out rather well. The only issue with once we reach that halfway point most of this impact is lost and honestly by that point the kid largely just gets in the way of the narrative.

Conclusion

All told though this is a pretty solid B-Movie. It shows a great deal of imagination and it’s a shame this film is mostly forgotten due to the large shadow cast by Don Siegel’s 1956 masterpiece “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Next year I will try and fit Hooper’s remake into my October viewing. That said, the second half is notably weaker than the first, the ending is an anti-climax and frankly the movie hasn’t aged that well. This is worth viewing if you are into 1950’s B-Movies or are a movie buff in general, but otherwise probably not worth the effort tracking down. I’m scoring this (In the context of the modern day) at a high 5.5/10.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.