Movie Review: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is largely remembered today because of its groundbreaking special effects by Ray Harryhausen, and for it being one of the foremost films of its kind from the 1950s. Atomic monsters — what’s not to love?

To be honest, I’m not sure if this was the first time I had seen it. I’ve been familiar with it for so long that it’s easy for me to forget if I had actually seen it before. Especially considering there’s a bit of if you’ve seen one stop motion giant atomic monster movie, you’ve seen them all.

I’m a big fan of ’50s sci-fi movies, and now that we’re past Halloween, I think this is the genre that I’ll be spending a lot of time on instead of slasher movies. I’ve already reviewed some of the best in The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing from Another World, The Fly, Forbidden Planet, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to see some classics that I hadn’t seen, as well as revisit movies I haven’t seen for a long time.

This movie is paced a lot differently than I would have expected it to be. You don’t see a lot of the monster for the first two thirds or so of the movie. The titular beast, of course, is pretty awesome, and the highlights are definitely when he’s out doing his thing.

When the monster’s not tearing down buildings and wreaking havoc, there are the typical ’50s sci-fi scenes of scientists talking and trying to figure out what’s going on. There aren’t really any memorable characters are performances, so these scenes do drag down the movie a bit. But when the monster is loose, it’s as good as you could hope.

Rating: 7/10