The
Space Children comes with a strong pedigree.
It was produced by William Alland and directed by the great Jack
Arnold. The duo had previously
collaborated on such Universal classics as It Came from Outer Space, The
Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Tarantula.
It was the duo’s first collaboration for Paramount and despite a nifty
set-up, it’s sorely lacking the punch of their best work.
Adam
Williams gets a job working at a top-secret rocket-testing facility in a
seaside town. His sons get to know the
local kids and go exploring in a nearby cave.
There, they find a glowing, pulsating blob that has the power to control
minds. It soon gets the children to help
it stop an upcoming rocket launch their parents are working on.
The
first appearance of the monster is well done, and Arnold crafts a handful of
effective moments. However, the bigger
the monster gets, the more boring the movie becomes. The scenes of characters spacing out whenever
it manipulates their minds get repetitive rather quickly. The heavy-handed ending doesn’t do it any
favors either and its overly preachy nature helps diminish some of the fun.
The
movie’s strength is its solid supporting cast full of familiar faces. Peggy (The Screaming Skull) Webber is fine as
Williams’ concerned wife, Russell (Gilligan’s Island) Johnson has a memorable
bit as a violent drunk, and Uncle Fester himself, Jackie Coogan turns up
(wearing some ultra-tight shorts) as one of the scientists at the compound. The space children themselves (among them The
Rifleman’s Johnny Crawford) do a nice job as well. Although their efforts aren’t enough to save
the film, they at least make it watchable.
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