A ship has gone to Mars on a rescue mission to pick up the lone remaining member of an ill-fated trip to the planet previously.  They find the man Carruthers and blame him for the death of his crew, supposedly over the lack of supplies.  Carruthers of course, denies it and blames it upon a creature from the planet.  No one believes him of course, but once people start disappearing, and they actually see the monster, then they have no recourse but to actually face the truth.

For an almost no-budget movie, it actually turned out pretty well, that is, rubber suit monster notwithstanding.  And speaking of effects, they seemed to do the best with what they had.  Most of the sets looked decent, which was a huge bonus, but when you looked at some of the smaller details, like the oxygen dial made of cardboard, you could see the money was just not there.

The acting by the cast is good, creating believability in the film which only breaks when the creature enters the picture.  It has been said before, but sometimes the unseen is more powerful and more effective than faced with the reality of things.  That thing in this case, is the man in the rubber suit.  The worst acting in the film also happens to come from the creature.  Even should it have been real, it is doubtful it would have looked and acted like it does in this movie.  A hidden entity in the shadows would have worked wonders for the film, and also saved them on budget.

One thing of note is that the film did not feature a damsel in distress, nor a young beauty to serve as eye-candy for the audience.  Refreshing to say the least as they seemed to want the story to stand on its own rather than relying on cheap ploys.  It is not to say that Shirley Patterson is terrible to look at, but she is not the standard blond that is usually featured in many horror and science-fiction films of the time, nor is she as young, already being 36 years old in this film.  Good job by Jerome Bixby, the writer and Edward L. Cahn, the director, for doing something different from the norm.

There are of course some ridiculous moments, one being the setting off of grenades in the rocket.  Again, setting off grenades in the rocket.  In space.  It is understandable that the creature has to go, but not at the expense of everyone else on board.  All in all though, a good B-movie that is better than most.  It has flaws of course, but what film does not?  Just remember one thing, ‘Another name for Mars is death!’

4 out of 5