Always the best genre for the production of truly great bad movies are sci-fi flicks, and I am glad to say "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space" does not disappoint.

The film begins with a report of how a deep space exploration mission has crash landed on Mars and how a rescue ship has been sent years later to find them. From what is a promising opening, the film rapidly collapses from there.

The first thing that sets you up for the quality of the rest of the film is the "rescue ship," which bears an uncanny resemblance to a dart with three very small sparklers strapped to the flight. After a few shots of this ship "hurtling" through space we arrive on Mars. The rescue crew finds the ship straight away but discover Colonel Edward Carruthers is the only survivor. They take him on board and leave. This is when we first see IT!, one of the least convincing monsters ever. How he got on board without anyone actully seeing him is never explained.

The rescue party, which seems for some reason to be full of motherly women who have an endless supply of fruit cake and fresh sandwiches, listen to Carruthers' story of what happened and how his crew members kept disappearing whenever they went outside. You'd think that after this happened a few times, they would cut their losses and not actually go outside. They instantly believe him, as you do.

Then, suddenly, one of the crew members (Rheinholt) is discovered to be missing, so they split up to search for him. From the outside, this rocket does not seem to be very big. They don't need to split up to find him. At any rate, you will never guess what happens next. Yes, one of the other crew members gets it (Gino). The rest of the crew finds Rheinholt's body in a service tunnel. They decide that Gino's body must also be in there and go in after him.

The crew plans what to do about IT! They decide the best plan would be to attach grenades to the air vent, so that when IT! comes out, it will blow up. Surely all those grenades would blow a hole in the side of the ship? No, apparently not. They don't even damage the room. Surprise, surprise, this plan doesn't work, and IT! is still alive. IT! attacks, and at one point he grabs a crew member's rifle and bends it like it was cardboard, which, probably, it was.

Realizing their plan failed, they try a variety of other plans, such as electrocuting it, gassing it, shooting it, etc. None of this works, so they hatch another plan that involves -- are you ready for this? -- sneaking up behind it. In an excellent display of camera trickery, they climb out the side door of the ship and walk down the side. Once they sneak up behind it, they decide to expose it to some radiation. How this massive dose of radiation doesn't harm them isn't explained, but that's in keeping with most of the film. This plan doesn't work either, so they decide that the creature must have big lungs and vow to exploit that.

Finally, we witness the demise of IT!, and what an anti-climax it is. With our heroic crew safely in their space suits, they open the airlock in the cabin and suck all the air out. Quite remarkably, all that is sucked out with the air is a few bits of paper. Our heroic crew has saved the day! HURRAH!