X the Unknown (1956)
- Original title
- X: The Unknown
- Directed by
- Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey
- Genre
- horror film, science fiction film, monster film
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Runtime
- 1h 20m
- Rated
- e 12
- Rating
- 6.1 of 10 from 74 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
In rural Scotland, scientists and military men try to figure out what is causing a string of deaths from radiation exposure. They trace it to a deadly subterranean creature that feeds on energy.
tenseominousbleakclinicalsuspensefulmethodicalcoldtroubling
What happens
X the Unknown is a 1956 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, directed by Leslie Norman and starring Dean Jagger, Leo McKern and Edward Chapman. The screenplay was written by Jimmy Sangster, his first for a feature film. In the film, a group of scientists and military personnel investigate a mysterious series of deaths by radiation exposure in rural Scotland. The film was originally conceived as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), but writer Nigel Kneale refused to let the character Bernard Quatermass be used, so the film was retooled into a standalone project. X the Unknown is significant in that "it firmly established Hammer's transition from B-movie thrillers to out-and-out horror/science fiction" and, with The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1957), completes "an important trilogy containing relevant allegorical threads revealing Cold War anxieties and a diminishing national identity resulting from Britain's decrease in status as a world power". As with Quatermass, Hammer played up the film's X Certificate in their advertising. The film premiered at the London Pavilion on 21 September, 1956. In the UK, the film was released on a double bill with Les Diaboliques. It was released in the United States on 2 May, 1957, on a double feature with The Curse of Frankenstein. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
The Gamma People (1956)
Island of Terror (1966)
Fiend Without a Face (1958)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Strange World of Planet X (1958)
The Thing (1982)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Devilwood (2006)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.