for United Artists wasn't nearly as happy an experience as working at AIP was for him. As filming progressed, Ray Corrigan turned up drunk on the set a few times, refused to follow certain directions from Ed Cahn and even damaged the monster suit, causing Blaisdell to be called in to do a couple of quick "patch-up" jobs. Blaisdell said it wasn't a happy set, what with Corrigan drunk on and off, and the film's female star Shawn Smith constantly in a bad mood, furious that she had been cast in a low-budget monster movie. Blaisdell said only Marshall Thompson seemed to be enjoying himself. The creature costume became the property of UA, and wound up a year later showing up in their 1959 John Agar opus, Invisible Invaders (without paying Blaisdell for reusing his props). Reception At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on , with a weighted average rating of 5.9/10. Variety noted that the creature was the star: "‘It’ is a Martian by birth, a Frankenstein by instinct, and a copycat. The monster dies hard, brushing aside grenades, bullets, gas and an atomic pile, before snorting its last snort. It’s old stuff, with only a slight twist". A retrospective film review by Dennis Schwartz favorably compared It! with Alien, a classic 1979 film that borrowed its creature feature plot liberally from its earlier counterpart. Adaptations In 1992, Millennium Publications adapted It! The Terror from Beyond Space as a short-run comic book series, written by Mark Ellis and Dean Zachary. A further comics adaptation was released by Midnite Movies (IDW Publishing) in 2010, for a three-issue run. The film was shown on the MeTV show "Svengoolie" on February 5, 2022 and October 8, 2022. See also List of films set on Mars References Notes Bibliography Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. London: Octopus Books Limited. 1976. . Palmer, Randy. Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997. . Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties 21st Century Edition. 2009. McFarland & Company. . External links Original soundtrack of Paul Sawtell's and Bert Shefter's score from It! The Terror From Beyond Space 1958 films 1958 horror films 1950s science fiction films 1950s science fiction horror films American black-and-white films American