MxAshlynn

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So I was sick basically all June and during that time I watched a boatload of '50s sci fi, mostly on Archive.org. Here are my top recommendations~~


Content Warning for these films: Some of these are sci-fi/horror. Some of these are pretty sexist. A few are racist, imperialist, or pro-war. A very few are violent and/or gross. You should be able to find detailed content warnings for most of them online.

My favorites~

  1. Forbidden Planet -- nearest thing to Star Trek before Star Trek
  2. Quatermass 2 -- nearest thing to Doctor Who before Doctor Who
  3. Gojira -- simply incredible
  4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- great dialogue and great tension
  5. The Day the Earth Stood Still -- it'd be nice if this happened in real life
  6. The Thing from Another World -- amazing dialogue and actually pretty spooky until the monster shows up
  7. The Blob -- hooray for teens!
  8. Them! -- first and best giant bug film
  9. The Monolith Monsters -- super underrated
  10. The Curse of Frankenstein -- much closer to the book than the Universal release, but still not really close to the book

Honorable mention for being surprisingly hard sci fi~

Honorable mention for being surprisingly gory by '50s standards~

  • X, the Unknown (AKA Quatermass: the Lost Levels)

Honorable mention for being Yakuza vs The Blob~

Honorable mention for being early Body Horror~

Honorable mention for being Weird as Heck~

Bad, but Fun~

  1. The Trollenberg Terror | MSTed -- i like the acting
  2. The Giant Gila Monster | MSTed -- if you cut out the monster, this would be a good story
  3. Earth vs. the Spider | MSTed -- i dunno, it somehow goes down easy?
  4. Plan 9 from Outer Space | Never MSTed -- as ridiculous as it sounds
  5. Teenagers from Outer Space | MSTed -- worth it for the skeleton ray

IMO Overrated

  • It Came From Outer Space -- not great, but great cinematography
  • War of the Worlds -- I guess it's good if you haven't read the book?
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon -- so many missed opportunities
  • This Island Earth -- why do people like this one?
  • Tarantula -- maybe John Agar's best sci fi role, but that's not saying much

Bonus '60s Recs


If you only take one thing from this list, take The Monolith Monsters.

IMO It's really, really underrated and really, really underwatched. It's super creative and original, kind of prefiguring The Andromeda Strain but in a totally different way.

It shows that the genre formula of the US drive-in sci-fi B movie can work well when done with care.

It's not as cerebral or high-budget as Forbidden Planet, Gojira, The Day the Earth Stood Still, or any Quatermass, nor is it as tense as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Curse of Frankenstein, Them, or Thing From Another World...

...but it is a great popcorn movie, much better than many better-known sci-fi films of the era.


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