Retro Film Series — The Thing From Another World & The Incredible Shrinking Man

Howard Hawk’s THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951, 87 min)

Here is the original chiller that inspired John Carpenter’s celebrated remake! A UFO crashes near an isolated military base in the far Arctic. Scientists recover a frozen alien and take it back to their base where it awakens. Now, they’re trapped in a frozen wasteland with an unstoppable monster that sees them as prey, thirsty for blood and is in no mood for galactic diplomacy. The famed final words of this film are both warning and answer: “Keep watching the skies!” A snappy ensemble, an eerie theremin-infused score by Dimitri Tamkin score, all merge in an edgy classic that will keep you watching the skies and the screen.

Jack Arnold’s THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957, 81 min)

Here is Jack Arnold’s classic sci-fi entertainment that tackles deep questions about what it means to be human. Six months after being exposed to a mysterious radiation cloud, suburban everyman Scott Carey (Grant Williams) finds himself becoming smaller . . . and smaller . . . and smaller—until he’s left to fend for himself in a world in which ordinary cats, mousetraps, and spiders pose a mortal threat, all while grappling with a diminishing sense of himself. Directed by the prolific creature-feature impresario Jack Arnold with ingenious optical effects and a transcendent metaphysical ending, “The Incredible Shrinking Man” gazes with wonder and trepidation into the unknowable vastness of the cosmic void.