Hijos del espacio

Yes, Jack Arnold running at half throttle, so the uninitiated viewer might get the impression that this is not worthy of his reputation as a sci-fi great. But trashing his farewell to the genre wouldn’t be fair. Even though the production values of are not great by his standards (some exterior shots and a few sandy – albeit pretty – sets, repeated over and over again), the effort to convey something to the audience more than compensates for that. Arnold was a Democrat in body and soul, and this was a sort of a middle finger to the hawks (mainly Republicans) who, full of panic about the upcoming Soviet Sputnik launch, were eager to build something similar to this film’s atomic weapon The Thunderer, which would shoot down similar satellites. And Arnold clearly says, "No-no, boys, it wouldn't work that way." Projecting "the good of humanity" onto the characters of young children was a bit shallow, but on the other hand, the creators of the much-celebrated Village of the Damned two years later could see what it looks like when children play individuals in trance, some kind of mediums controlled by mental energy (or whatever that lump of slime hidden in the cave on the beach was actually transmitting). The pathetic ending with numerous distant viewpoints (as if cut out of a buddy movie) was over the top, but really just corresponded with what Arnold was trying to do. (10.04.2015)