 The film was nominated for AFI's Top 10 Science Fiction Films list.Patricia Bosworth, writing in 1992, counted "It Came from Outer Space" as one of a number of '50s Hollywood anti-Communist propaganda films in which "aliens from outer space serve as metaphors for the Soviet menace".Bosworth's inclusion of the Korean War-era film as anti-Communist propaganda is at odds with both The American Film Institute and story author Ray Bradbury, who stated, "I wanted to treat the invaders as beings who were not dangerous, and that was very unusual".