This movie is often made fun of and somehow makes it onto lists of the worst Sci-Fi movies. It really doesn't deserve either fate. I suppose for people who don't appreciate or understand 1950s cinema it's an easy target.
Contrarily, the sexual politics and Cold War politics of this film are fascinating. it is essentially a riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but brings in the sensationalism so characteristic of family and romantic melodrama of that era to a far greater degree than Body Snatchers.
But if you don't want to get quite so heavy, you can also simply watch this movie as a fun science fiction fantasy. There are some simple but very effective special effects throughout, and a particularly effective and gruesome moment when the bride of the monster discovers that he is an alien. The way in which aliens die is also, again, simple but pretty cool. In fact I wonder if the effect of how the aliens die in this movie impacted the similar but even more gruesome, color effects in similar movies of the '60s and '70s.
Anyway, this movie is considered a minor classic of the era, not on the same level of invasion of the Body Snatchers but still respectably compelling and entertaining.
Contrarily, the sexual politics and Cold War politics of this film are fascinating. it is essentially a riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but brings in the sensationalism so characteristic of family and romantic melodrama of that era to a far greater degree than Body Snatchers.
But if you don't want to get quite so heavy, you can also simply watch this movie as a fun science fiction fantasy. There are some simple but very effective special effects throughout, and a particularly effective and gruesome moment when the bride of the monster discovers that he is an alien. The way in which aliens die is also, again, simple but pretty cool. In fact I wonder if the effect of how the aliens die in this movie impacted the similar but even more gruesome, color effects in similar movies of the '60s and '70s.
Anyway, this movie is considered a minor classic of the era, not on the same level of invasion of the Body Snatchers but still respectably compelling and entertaining.