The Space Children
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld; story by Tom Filer
1958/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce. — Winston Churchill [/box]
Not every B-picture directed by Jack Arnold can be The Incredible Shrinking Man. That said, I thought this was much better than its IMDb rating.
The Brewster family is moving to the seaside so that Dad can work on a not-so-secret satellite capable of dropping an H-bomb from space. Somehow the beach seems sinister to Mom and she has good instincts. The two young sons see a blinding flash from the sky but no one will pay attention to them. On their first outing with the neighbor children, they explore a cave where they discover a glowing brain-like object. This promptly hypnotizes the kids into doing its bidding.
The film suffers from a miniscule special effects budget. This means that we have no alien action and, indeed, only a few glimpses of the creature. So Arnold has to create suspense where none really exists and is only partially successful. I though it was well-made for what it was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ajo4z-0Zs
Trailer
