It! The Terror from Beyond Space

This article is missing information about the film's theatrical/home video releases and legacy. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (April 2018)

It! The Terror from Beyond Space
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Edward L. Cahn
Written by	Jerome Bixby
Produced by	Robert Kent Edward Small (uncredited)
Starring	Marshall Thompson Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson) Kim Spalding Dabbs Greer Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Narrated by	Marshall Thompson
Cinematography	Kenneth Peach
Edited by	Grant Whytock
Music by	Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter
Production companies	Vogue Pictures, Inc.
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 14, 1958 (1958-08-14)
Running time	69 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson), and Kim Spalding.^[1] The film was distributed by United Artists as a double feature with Curse of the Faceless Man.^[2]

The story involves Earth's second mission to Mars to discover the fate of the Challenge 141 and its crew. Only a single survivor is found still alive from that crashed spaceship. The survivor, the expedition's former commander, claims that his crew were killed by a hostile Martian life form. No one from the rescue ship believes him until the creature, now a stowaway, begins hunting the crew on their return trip to Earth.

The film's premise has been cited as an inspiration for screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's screenplay for Ridley Scott's classic 1979 film Alien.^[2]

The other film that seems to have been an influence on Alien was Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires (1965) which involves a mysterious SOS signal from an alien planet which acts as a lure for passing ships, as with the first half of Ridley Scott’s film.