It! The Terror From Beyond Space

It!  It!  It's on the ship! on the ship!  It Breathes! It Hunts! IT Kills!! (naturally).  
I wonder how Capt. Kirk or Capt. Picard would handle something like this alien monster creepin aboard their ships? (There was a similar plot line recently on the canceled Enterprise series, when a Gorn lizard alien was sneaking around the ship, but it wasn't as effective). Actually, the closest Star Trek TOS got to this was probably the episode "The Man Trap" - the first episode to be broadcast.
IT! just may be my favorite Sci-Fi film of the fifties. That's a strong statement considering that the decade also contained Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, Them! and a few others of excellent quality. Many fans really like the film IT! but point out very quickly the low budget and cheap sets. But, I tell you, what they did with what they had was nothing short of spectacular. I consider this one to be perfectly plotted, paced and cast. All the actors are quite good. Then there's that palpable sense of urgency and the claustrophobic sense of 'no place to go, no place to hide' which surpasses the eerie feeling of the later Alien. In that later film, the ship was huge and there always seemed to be a place to hide; in this early version, the survivors run out of room quite quickly. I think writer Jerome Bixby had a good case; I mean, Harlan Ellison successfully sued the makers of the Terminator film for similarities to a story of his which I never really understood.

I remember when I first saw IT! on TV about 40 years ago. I was very young, of course, and impressionable. I tell you, that scene of the creepy monster breaking out of the compartment with the atomic reactor and grabbing that guy on the ladder was the single scariest scene of my childhood movie-viewing days. There was something about that monster chasing down, grabbing and destroying a weak human being (armed with a useless gun) that informed my nightmares for nights to come. Even though I knew it took place on a spaceship in outer space somewhere, I was scared of the dark in my own house for a long time due to that scene.
This just shows you: despite a shoe-string budget, the atmospherics they created here, of a haunted house in outer space, proved to be very effective. It Lives ON!    It's ripe for another Remake. A DVD was released in 2001. BoG's Score: 8 out of 10
originally to be titled It! The Vampire From Outer Space:             masks>
Trivia From Beyond Space:  At a key point, Van Heusen (Kim Spalding) in his delirium decides to open up the reactor to kill It (in his words, enough radiation to kill a hundred men).  It breaks out of the reactor room, thereby technically exposing the next compartment to this intense radiation - the next compartment where the guy with the damaged space helmet is seated.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Zu3Q5QDB0