Does anyone know? I think its "IT came from outer space" I always thought it was this movie, but there's got to be one before that. I tried searching the web, but I can't find anything. Thank you in advance
I think that one of the first alien movies, if not the first at all, is "The thing from another world" (1951), two years earlier than this movie.
shareLooks like you're right. If you look through IMDB's list of movies tagged as both "Sci-Fi" and "Horror" sorted by release date, the first alien movie in that list is "The Thing from Another World (1951)" (It's #145 in the sorted list as I type this reply.) Almost every Sci-Fi+Horror movie match before that was a mad scientist movie.
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=sci_fi&genres=horror&explore=year&sort=year,asc
I remember a movie that started with a young boy seeing a spaceship land outside his window, and aliens started taking over the people in his town. I thought it was It Came From Outer Space, but I just watched that and it's not the movie I remember. If anyone can tell me the name of the other movie, I'd have a great start to the new year.
shareThat sounds like "Invaders From Mars". There was a bad remake around 1986, so I hope you don't mean that one.
shareThis movie is the 1953 "Invaders from Mars". Scared the daylights out of me when I was a kid. Spaceship lands in kid's back yard, dad investigates and is sucked under the sand to be the first in town to become a slave of the aliens. Kid has a hard time finding anyone to listen to him that isn't controlled by the aliens. The army finally comes to the rescue, not without brain-control casualties of their own, blowing up the subterranian alien hangout. The end of the movie has a neat twist. Excellent story, good acting, good cast, stark & film noirish sets that add to the nightmarish feel. Stiff-legged alien drones and a giant brained leader in a big test tube. Look closely and you'll see one of the aliens brush up against a cave wall that bobs bakc and forth like the inflated balloon that it probably is. One of my personal favorite 50s sci-fi films.
shareInvaders from Mars, the original one, is a stellar masterpiece.
The remake has a truly bizarre delivery by Louise Fletcher as an alien school teacher. Her being from Alabama and my being from Mississippi, she bore a strong enough resemblance to my hated, horrid first grade teacher, the thought of that woman also driving a school bus as Fletcher did is chilling for me. If she'd had black hair as mine did, the nightmarish image would be complete.
Other than that, the remake was terrible.
Alien movies go back to the early part of last century. Try A TRIP TO THE MOON or A MESSAGE FROM MARS.
-J. Theakston
The Silent Photoplayer
http://www.thephotoplayer.com/
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The oldest alien movie I know was MESSAGE FROM MARS (1913). Ive never seen it (I don't know if even it still exsists) This was a comedy about a martian who arrives on Earth and helps a man reform his ways. The martian in the film pretty much serves the same purpose as an Angel, Fairy, Ghost etc in films with similiar plots. THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD was the first film made in the fifites about alien invaders, however THE MAN FROM PLANET X which began shooting after THE THING was completed did make it to the theaters in some cities before THE THING. Also there was the 1945 serial THE PURPLE MONSTER, about an alien invader who arrives on Earth to make way for an invasion force.
shareIm sure I've seen docs about silent alien movies produced just before the turn of the century.
shareThe earliest extant film extraterrestrial aliens that I am aware of are the Selenites in Melies' Voyage to the Moon (1902). A great list of early films about Mars can be found here:
http://www.scifidimensions.com/Mar00/MoviesMars/mars_in_silent_films.htm
Now, it seems almost all these early aliens are humanoid, not monstrous, (although there can be monsters on other planets, e,g. the devil monster at the end of the Flash Gordon first serial (1936) or the mutants on Rocketship X-M (1950).)
The neat thing about the aliens in ICFOS are that they are monstrous but take humanoid shape. So, I suppose the most likely influences are The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) which has an alien assume human shape and The Thing (1951) which is monsterous and only vaguely humanoid. The Man from Planet X (1951) is scary looking, but still clearly humanoid.
So, perhaps the monster from The Thing (1951) is the the first clear monster (though still somewhat humanoid, at least for an "intellectual carrot").
Can someone think of an earlier clearly monstrous alien invader?
I haven't seen The Purple Monster Strikes, so do we ever see what the original Martian is like ?
Benedictus
--
"Hollywood makes movies for everyone because everyone has the money" - Pauline Kael
Youir right. I did forget Voyage to the moon.
shareThe oldest I saw was: Аэлита / Aelita: Queen of Mars / Revolt of the Robots.
Look at:
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014646/
- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305470286/scifidimensions
The oldest I know about is: A Message from Mars. It was made in 1913. There is also a remake made in 1921.
Loot at:
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316241/
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012456/
gRoet ger !!!
The oldest I can think of is 1902's A Trip to the Moon. That movie with the moon with a face, and it was paradied in that Smashing Pumkins music video "Tonight, Tonight."
shareClearly, there have been aliens in science fiction movies going back into the silent era. I believe the thread question should be rephrased,"What was the first GOOD alien movie?" Depending on which one came out first, I believe the answer is either "The Thing From Another World" or "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
shareHelp! I'm usually pretty good with movie names, but I am totally stuck and need some help. I've been going to movies for (harump, harump) 50+ years and 50s Sci-Fi are my favorite. Just love 'em. One of the very first movies I saw has just stuck with me all these years but I remember very little of it, but my emotions tell me that I really enjoyed it. Basic plot outline: Alien has an emergency landing on earth and wants to escape & needs an airtank or something like that. He is invisible but when a special light shines on him he is visible - humanoid, glows & shimmers white & seems to be tall. He appears to be trying to get to an observatory or something like that, but he is being chased by the "usual suspects" - a couple of good guys and a good lookin' lady & the usual bad guys. I remember that they drove an old 1950's Plymouth Woodie fitted with a radar scope of some kind so they could keep tracking him. I remember a chase scene through what looked like a lumber yard or outdoor storage area. At the end they all ended up in an observatory, I think. The alien had climbed about 30' up some scaffolding and clearly appears to have trouble breathing. As they were trying to talk him down the alien fell to the ground, died, and disappeared or evaporated. The movie was sympathetic to the alien which is probably why I remember some of it. So, if anyone can tell me the title I will be in your debt. I have google 50's sci-fi movies and checked out about 50 - 80 sites without any luck. Thanks, John in Sacramento
shareSome of what you describe sounds like an old Outer Limits episode, "The Belarose Shield". It had an alien who glowed and shimmered white and it centered around an observatory-like building. Other than that, the rest is unfamiliar. Good Luck with your search though.
sharejbpink99 (John):
Movie is "Phantom From Space" - 1953 directed by W. Lee Wilder, brother of Billy Wilder.
I think I found your movie. It's called "Phantom From Space." I saw it's trailer in "Cheezy Sci-fi Trailers vol.1" from Netflix. It had everything you described in it.
[deleted]
That would be "Phantom From Space". I got it in a bargain DVD pack. The alien wears what resembles a modified diving bell on its head.
"America isn't ready for a gay, mexican chicken sandwich" - Poultrygeist
Define "Alien Movie" because Le Voyage dans la lune had aliens in it and it came out in 1902 so my money would be there.
"I love humanity, it's people I can't stand." - Linus Van Pelt
The FIRST Alien movie was "Alien" in 1979 by Ridley Scott
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/FBBAC_TimeaMajorova/
> The FIRST Alien movie was "Alien" in 1979 by Ridley Scott
No, this was the first derivative piece of crap movie.
Well, OK, OK -- not the first. But the rest of the description is completely accurate.
:-S
Nice
... and the rocks it pummels.
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