Summoned to the silver screen by sci-fi specialist Edward L. Cahn (Curse of the Faceless Man)—and too terrifying to even have a name!—“It” is a seemingly invincible monster that is hell-bent on killing everybody on a mission to Mars. This life-devouring alien brushes aside bullets and even nuclear blasts—making it one very cold-hearted Cold War-style invader. When his crew is brutally murdered on a Mars expedition, Commander Carruthers (Marshall Thompson, First Man into Space) becomes the prime suspect. Taken into custody and facing a court-martial back on Earth, he discovers that the real killer—a grotesque, slithering “It”—has stowed aboard the earthbound ship. But the indestructible creature has already begun a harrowing in-flight rampage, knocking off the members of the crew one by one. Now, as the spaceship heads home toward a panic-stricken Earth, the remaining crew must find some way to stop the unstoppable…“It.”

For thoughts on It! The Terror From Beyond Space, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/UbusyprQuNI?si=Y8scYKtNQeI3GOEA&t=2484]

Video Quality

Kino Classics presents It! The Terror From Beyond Space with a pleasant Blu-Ray in 1.85:1 from a new 2K scan of the 35mm Fine Grain that holds up quite well. The presentation is enjoyable throughout the runtime with image stability and delineation being handled without major issues. This transfer retains the natural film grain of the presentation with only fleeting moments of it seeming slightly clumpy. The picture has a few stray moments of softness, but the moody black-and-white photography has a firm handle on the gradients. Black levels hold up favorably with little in the way of crush. Instances of print damage such as nicks and lines are a consistent, minor presence, but there is little doubt that there has been significant cleanup and overall clarity and detail are robust. Kino Classics has brought new life to this cult sci-fi film.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a passable DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that should placate most fans. This track shows no significant age-related wear and tear such as dropouts, hissing, or popping. Dialogue and background noises are balanced harmoniously with all complementary elements. The score holds up with solid fidelity as it enhances the narrative. Thankfully, nothing ever overshadows the dialogue or other important information. All of the sound effects and music appear to be faithful to the intent of the creative team. You could not ask for better from Kino Classics. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film.

Special Features

Audio Commentaries: A trio of very informative commentary tracks is provided in which film historians discuss how this fits into the sci-fi output of this time, the background of the ensemble players, the thematic ambition of the story, the legacy of the film, and much more. There is some expected overlap between the tracks, but there is a lot of unique information for fans of this one.

- Audio Commentary #1: Film Historians Tom Weaver, Bob Burns, Larry Blamire and David Schecter

- Audio Commentary #2: Film Historian Craig Beam

- Audio Commentary #3: Film Historian/Screenwriter Gary Gerani

tidbITs – Ephemera from Beyond Space: A 44-minute new featurette from Craig Beam is provided in which the film historian collects some of the information that was not used in his commentary track that he believed would be better seen rather than simply heard. There is a lot of cool stuff in here including subliminal trailer advertising, early designs of the creature costume, obvious goofs, and more.

Trailers: The minute-long trailer for It! The Terror From Beyond Space is provided here. There are also trailers provided for Invisible Invaders, The Man From Planet X, The Quatermass Xperiment (The Creeping Unknown), The Monster That Challenged The World, Beyond The Time Barrier, The Amazing Transparent Man, The Earth Dies Screaming, and Guns, Girls and Gangsters.

Final Thoughts

It! The Terror From Beyond Space is not a genuinely great piece of sci-fi filmmaking, but it holds up as a throwback bit of cheese that encompasses what the genre offered at the time. The movie earns significant points for its strategic deployment of the monster, often using light and shadow to enhance the terror of the unknown. The spry runtime helps keep things moving, but you do wish for slightly more substance when considering its place in classic cinema. Kino Classics has released a new Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation and a significant selection of special features. Fans of old-school science fiction will enjoy this release. Recommended

It! The Terror From Beyond Space is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.