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It! The Terror from Beyond Space [Blu-ray]
(Edward L. Cahn, 1958)
The 2023 Kino Special Edition of It! The Terror From Outer Space Blu-ray is reviewed / compared HERE.
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Robert E. Kent Productions Video: Olive Films
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:09:24.201 Disc Size: 17,946,848,249 bytes Feature Size: 17,561,616,384 bytes Video Bitrate: 30.00 Mbps Chapters: 8 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: May 19th, 2015
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 2038 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2038 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: • None
Extras: • Trailer (1:09)
Bitrate:
Description: One of the best of the medium-budgeted science fiction flicks of the 1950s, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is set in "the future" 1973, to be exact. An rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor, Col Ed Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) is accused of murdering his fellow crewmen. But Ed claims that the killer was a Martian monster, and hopes to prove his assertions by signing up for a second journey to the Red Planet. Before long, the crew members of this second expedition are being systematically killed off, and it looks as though Ed is up to his old tricks. As it turns out, however, Ed was telling the truth: there is a monster on board, the savage descendant of the once-mighty Martian civilization, who snuck on board when an irresponsible crew member left the door open. The monster stays alive by absorbing the vital body fluids of its victims-and there seems to be no way to stop this parasitic creature! If the plot of It! The Terror from Beyond Space seems vaguely familiar, it is because it was one of the primary inspirations for the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien.
The Film:
An unwanted stowaway from Mars creates quite a ruckus aboard an
Earth-bound spacecraft in It! The Terror from Beyond Space
(1958). Not only does it love the taste of human blood, but it also
likes to play hide-and-seek in the air shafts. Sound familiar? That's
because screenwriter Dan O'Bannon ripped off the premise for Ridley
Scott's big-budget space odyssey,
Alien (1979). He also lifted some art direction ideas from Mario
Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965), but that's another story.
Ah, the 1950s, where the men were Caucasian, used gobs of Bryl-Creem,
and smoked cigarettes furiously, all to make themselves look reasonably
to whatever woman (or, in the parlance of the day, "girl") happened to
be in the vicinity. The 1950s were also a veritable Golden Age of
science fiction schlock. With the occasional exception, e.g., "The
Day the Earth Stood Still," "The
War of the Worlds," "Forbidden
Planet," movie studios invested as little as possible on the
genre, if they invested anything at all. When they did, the end product
was strictly B-movie material, filmed on a handful of cheap looking sets
(because they were, in fact, cheap), a cast of unknowns (most of whom
stayed that way), inexpensive talent behind the camera (usually B-movie
veterans), and storylines meant to appeal to juvenile tastes (since
science fiction, like superhero comic books, were meant for
unsophisticated, adolescent males).
The 2023 Kino Special Edition of It! The Terror From Outer Space Blu-ray is reviewed / compared HERE. Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. It! The Terror from Beyond Space has a single-layered Blu-ray transfer from Olive Films but a high bitrate for the 1 hour and 10-minute film. There are some light damage and speckles in the beginning 10-minutes, a direct the condition of the source, but after settles down to be quite strong. There are a lot of dark scenes but I noted no noise and the detail in close-ups is acceptable It's slightly better than I was anticipating and contrast looks adept. The Blu-ray improved the presentation over an SD rendering and any minor flaws had no detrimental effect on my viewing. The 1080P in 1.85:1 provided a good viewing on my system.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Audio in the form of a DTS-HD Master stereo track at 2038. The film's effects, limited to the budget, are emphasized by the creatures growling. More demonstrative is the score by Paul Sawtell (Silver City, The Fly, Denver and Rio Grande) and Bert Shefter (teaming with Sawtell on She-Devil and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) and it's almost at a Herrmann level of intensity - and sounds pretty rich and deep via the lossless. There are no subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.
Extras : Only a, beat-up, trailer as a supplement - which is the bare-bones route that Olive are going with most of their releases.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze May 5th, 2015
The 2023 Kino Special Edition of It! The Terror From Outer Space Blu-ray is reviewed / compared HERE. |
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. 60-Inch Class (59.58” Diagonal) 1080p Pioneer KURO Plasma Flat Panel HDTV PDP6020-FD
Oppo Digital BDP-83 Universal Region FREE Blu-ray/SACD
Player APC AV 1.5 kVA H Type Power Conditioner 120V Gary W. Tooze ALL OUR NEW FORMAT DVD REVIEWS
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