Director Robert Day's thought-provoking, classic sci-fi horror movie First Man into Space, powerfully explores humanity's fascination with the stars, no matter the cost, while triggering a cosmic terror that lies deep inside us all.
The fantastical notion of visiting outer space, voyaging alone amidst a blackened canvas of endless expanse is a surreal experience very few humans have had, so stark are the inherent dangers of high-altitude space travel.
But what if, during the dizzying ascent, something were to go wrong? if one man's hubris to explore the outer reaches of our known existence would trigger both terminal tragedy and disaster.
AFTER HITTING A thick cloud of material in the upper ionosphere, pilot lt. Dan Prescott is forced to perform an emergency evacuation, crash landing from 1,320,000 feet back down to earth. From his sudden exposure to mysterious meteorite dust and nitrogen absorption, Dan miraculously survives, but his altered metabolism now requires oxygen-enriched blood to survive!
Much of the horror lies in its unflinching use of practical effects, which harrowingly portray Dan's ordeal to stomach-churning degrees. boils, blisters, encrustations, and bulging pustules protrude from irradiated skin, giving Dan's newfound first for human blood a chilling edge.
Despite this rampage of terror, the film ascends to a suspenseful but poignant climax, looking through sympathetic eyes at the pawns of political gain and the nature of self-destructive human endeavor.
Though some narrative threads drift into the stratosphere, "First Man Into Space" delivers a chillingly moving tale of one man's dream to visit the stars.
On the hunt for more classic horror movies? why not devour our razor-sharp review of Cat People (1932)
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