It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction film produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson) and Kim Spalding. The film was distributed by United Artists in 1958 on a double bill with Curse of the Faceless Man.
The story involves Earth's second mission to Mars to discover the fate of the first. They find a sole survivor of that mission and bring him back. The survivor, the expedition's former commander, claims that his crew were killed by a hostile Martian life form. No one believes him until the creature, now a stowaway, begins hunting the rescue ship's crew as they return to Earth.
The film's premise was the inspiration for screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's screenplay for Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien.
