It Came from Outer Space: The 1950s B-Movie That Scared the Pants Off a Young John Carpenter

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It Came from Outer Space: The 1950s B-Movie That Scared the Pants Off a Young John Carpenter

As a die-hard fan of John Carpenter’s groundbreaking horror masterpieces, I can’t help but marvel at the humble origins that spawned such cinematic terror. The man who gave us the chilling suspense of Halloween and the heart-stopping tension of The Thing was once a trembling child, petrified by a 3D meteor in It Came from Outer Space.

It might be a little difficult to picture, but the man who permanently reinvented the face of horror with the likes of Halloween and The Thing was once a frightened child, scared out of his wits by the visual of a falling meteor in…EYE-POPPING 3-D!

For a young filmmaker like John Carpenter, who was raised on a regular diet of Westerns, ’50s sci-fi, and B-movies, the special effects in “It Came from Outer Space” (currently streaming on Peacock) were a transformative cinema experience. Although they might not seem “jaw-dropping” by today’s standards, they had a profound impact on him.

Exploring the Career of Director John Carpenter:

John Carpenter recalls how It Came from Outer Space made him leap out of his seat in terror

The filmmaker admitted that the scariest movie for him was likely “It Came from Outer Space,” during a 1982 discussion on horror with John Landis and David Cronenberg. He was only four years old at the time, and because he was seated near the front, when the meteor appeared to burst out of the screen towards him, it startled him so much that he jumped up and ran to the back, exclaiming “Oh my goodness! What was that?!” before returning to his seat.

When queried by the host if “It Came from Outer Space” impacted his approach to filmmaking, the straightforward Carpenter simply stated: “Not really.” However, looking back, it’s clear that this 1953 movie exerted a profound subconscious influence on the filmmaker who would later establish his unique cinematic niche. Numerous storyline aspects from “Outer Space” – such as a hardware store mysteriously defaced, the idea of alien mimicry, invasion and paranoia themes – can all be traced in Carpenter’s most renowned works.

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Drawing inspiration from Ray Bradbury’s timeless tale, “It Came from Outer Space” serves as a nostalgic artifact of a period when humanity was tentatively stepping into the realm of space exploration and confronting the escalation of the Cold War. This era was marked by an intriguing blend of excitement and apprehension, where science fiction films were characterized by over-the-top titles, women were often relegated to mere shrieking roles, and a haunting theremin melody indicated the arrival of something extraterrestrial.

1950s alien invasions often served as symbolic representations of the impending menace of communism and the USSR to American society. However, unlike other movies of that era, “It Came from Outer Space” appears less like a pro-anti Soviet propaganda piece and more like a critique of the McCarthy-era witch hunts. The protagonist, John Putnam (Richard Carlson), a stargazing writer, emerges as the sole voice of reason amidst a tempest of unfounded fear and mistrust.

At the climax, he bravely confronts a hostile crowd intent on attacking alien visitors, whose sole intention is to mend their spacecraft and depart our world in peace. Granted, they are rather grotesque-looking (essentially having massive foreheads with eyes), but they pose no threat to us. It’s human nature to immediately feel fear towards the unknown; to attack first and ask questions later. However, once the craft is successfully repaired and departs for some distant location, Putman leaves behind a hopeful message of empathy and anticipation: “It wasn’t the perfect moment for our encounter. But there will be other opportunities, other celestial bodies for us to gaze upon. They’ll return…

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2024-09-06 20:16