Killers from Space (1954) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

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Poster for Killers from Space (1954) Killers from Space (1954) Strange creatures from another world attack planet earth! by #WLeeWilder
w/#PeterGraves #JamesSeay #BarbaraBestar

An atomic scientist claims he was abducted by aliens after being injured in a plane crash.

“Strange creatures from another world attack planet earth!”

“It’s a nuclear nightmare!”

#SciFi #Horror
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Killers from Space (1954) was directed by W. Lee Wilder, who made another movie I featured on a Friday Night At The Home Drive-In – The Snow Creature (1954). I recall two things about that movie; 1) it wasn’t very good, and 2) it was made by the brother of Hollywood legend Billy Wilder. Yes, Billy Wilder, the brilliant film director who made such classics as The Apartment (1960), Some Like It Hot (1959) and Sunset Boulevard (1950). The Snow Creature, of course, paled in comparison to ANYTHING that Billy Wilder had made. So how does Killers from Space do by comparison…?

The short answer is, maybe marginally better…(?) I found this one to be fairly entertaining, in a campy sort of way. It was mostly slow paced, and took a while to get to the bug-eyed aliens – which may be the highlight of the film. The first half is mostly in the astronaut-returns-to-Earth-but-something-is-wrong-with-him genre. Although in this case, he is a nuclear scientist working on atomic bomb tests. The story goes something like this:

While collecting aerial data, his plane crashes, but miraculously,  Dr Martin appears to be unhurt. In fact, he walks back to the air base and the only “injury” he has is a strange scar on his chest that was not there before the crash. He apparently has no memory of what happened to him, but he starts to behave strangely, almost like a spy working for a foreign power – perhaps from another planet!

Eventually we get to see what happened to Dr Martin, when he is given a truth serum and forced to recount his story. Is it worth the wait? Well, that’s debatable… but I gotta love those bug-eyed aliens.

Killers from Space (1954) is no masterpiece, but it made me laugh a few times. It was an acceptable way to pass 70 odd minutes in the way-past-midnight hours. It’s the kind of #NotQuiteClassicCinema that you might stumble upon, get some mild enjoyment from, and then promptly forget about. It’s quite possible that in a few years, I won’t remember that I ever saw it. But it certainly isn’t be the worst movie I’ve ever seen  – and it likely won’t be the nadir of your film-watching experience if you choose to give it a chance on a #FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn. 

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