# A sci-fi movie from the early 50's--scared the crap out of me then. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327 "2005-12-12T22:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/21 "2005-12-13T03:59:03Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > My experience with seeing movies that scared me as a kid has been disappointing. The scariest movie I ever saw as a kid, the one that gave me the most nighmares, was [House on Haunted Hill](http://imdb.com/title/tt0051744/) with Vincent Price. I saw it again in my forties and it was a yawner. DUDE!! You and me both. I saw HOHH when I was about 10 or so and had bad dreams for a week. I caught again about 20 years later on some late night creature feature and was ready to be scard all over again. It was one of old Vincent’s horror-comedies and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how it had scared me so badly in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/22 "2005-12-13T04:45:44Z")
**Eve** GREAT posting about **Luz Potter**. Damn - how could we have forgotten those very crucial scenes? Sure as we’ve said, the sucking sand pits (with creepy singing & music), the mutants, the drill thing in the back of the neck were _all_ scary - but don’t you think the creepiest, scariest “thing” was that tentacled alien in that glass sphere? WOAH that was creepy !!! Thanks Eve. (I have a feeling I just might have nightmares tonight). ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/23 "2005-12-13T04:49:00Z")
Woops my error. It seems **MacTech** already mentioned that scary tentacled monster in the globe. Sorry MacTech. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/24 "2005-12-13T11:38:57Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > So apparently there’s not a decent version of the movie on DVD? That’s what I got from the article. What a shame. You forgot to follow the link (“Finally! A decent DVD is available for Invaders from Mars. Read Savant’s review”) at the top of that 1998 article, to a review of the [Image Entertainment](http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s691mars.html) DVD release in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/25 "2005-12-13T12:40:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **It Came From Outer Space** was in the desert, and with scenes in a cave. It was also originally filmed in 3-D – if you get the chance, watch it that way _It Came From Outer Space_ features my favourite cheap startle of any film – and it really only works in 3D, insofar as it works at all. Our heroes are walking through the creepy desert at night. A sudden major chord on the soundtrack syncs with a quick cut to: A JOSHUA TREE. Heroine screams: “Aaaaaaaaaagh!” ‘The Professor’ from Gilligan’s Island: “Relax, it’s just a joshua tree.” Classic. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/26 "2005-12-13T13:29:12Z")
I saw **Invaders from Mars** as a kid. It was interesting, but I didn’t have the reaction most people do to it. Years later, I attended a screening of it at the theater at George Eastman House in Rochester. This is a classy joint – you can’t get popcorn or soda or candy. You can’t eat in the theater. People come to it all dressed up and they keep quiet during the films and your feet don’t stick to the floor. Peopl;e pepper their conversation with things like _mise en scene_ and know the names of set designers. These people had come to watch a film directed by Cameron Menzies, and they were gonna _enjoy_ it, by gosh. So I was really surprised when they started _talking back to the screen_ and making MST3K-like comments (years before MST3K existed) – behavior I’d never seen at this theater before, or since. I think everyone was just surprised at how bad the film was. Some of the dialogue is ludicrious! Mu-TANTS. The space scientist going on and on about how life on Mars must be, extrapolating absurdly from absolutely nothing. Yeah, yeah, I know that the story is supposed to be “as told from a kid’s point of view” and is supposed to be filled with exagerrated imagery and kid-sized surreality, but it never really worked for me as a kid, and as an adult, despite the claims of enthusiasts for the film, it seems dumb. Random notes: 1.) At the end they set timers for the explosives to blow up the Martian ship. If you time it, you see that the film really does take the right amount of time between setting and blowing up. One of the few filmd to do this. Unfortunately, it required a _lot_ of padding to make that time work out right. Not a good sign. 2.) One of the guys in the Martian suits also played Gort in **Day the Earth Stood Still**. 3.) Menzies was art director on the original, silent version of **Thief of Baghdad** 4.) In the remake, you can see the head of the octopoid Martian leader, in its fishbowl, off in the background of the school basement. 5.) I’m concvinced they got Laraine Newman to play the Mom in the remake just so they could have her use her “Connie Conehead” voice at the end. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327/27 "2005-12-13T13:36:17Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > It scared the heck out of me too, even though you can see the zipper on the back of the alien costumes. I happen to have owned one of those costumes, bought it at an auction in 1997 from Western Costume in Los Angeles for $15.00. It’s even cheesier in real life. Fun movie though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sci-fi-movie-from-the-early-50s-scared-the-crap-out-of-me-then/335327.md?page=1)