4/5 the monsterthat ate the world
  by J. tanquary (california)
i remember this movie when i was a kid the it , was one monster that scared me

3/5 Escargot getting its revenge
  by retrowrestling (Pasadena, California)
Double-sided disc featuring two monster-type sci-fi oldies. Side A features The Monster that Challenged the World(84mins/1957). This movie has French & Spanish subtitles and is presented in full screen. Giant snail-like creatures invade Catalina Island! What will the military do to stop them?

Side B features IT! The Terror from Beyond Space(69mins/1958). This movie also contains French & Spanish subtitles as well as the original theatrical trailer with some "subliminal messages" and is presented in full screen . A mission to Mars is distrupted by an 'IT' thing. Will they ever make it to Mars on time?

Between the two movies I enjoyed 'Monster' a lot more. The pace was quicker and I could get into the characters. 'IT!' felt a little dull for me. The spaceship setting wasn't as appealing and the characters weren't that interesting. Also, the creature from 'Monster' is 'better' looking..just my opinion. Both prints are clear. Old 50's style drive-in terror.

5/5 Terror From Beneath The Sea / Then Terror From Space
  by Jero Briggs
On this great DVD you get two old sci-fi classics on one disc. First you have "The Monster that Challenged the World". Then you have "It! The Terror from Beyond Space". I give both of these great movies five stars.

The Monster that Challenged the World:

The film did seem a little long at times, but other than that it was a great movie. I first saw this about a month ago on TV and found it to be quite enjoyable. The monster (and latter monsters) was very scary and convincing, and the story and acting were top-notch. An earthquake causes a cave to open up under the sea, and from the cave emerges an ancient man-eating sea creature that dares to challenge the world - and almost wins too. The creature starts to attack fishermen and teenage swimmers (hello "Jaws") before finally going onto the surface to feed on people near the shore line. Eventually more creatures start to emerge and soon its a race against time to destoy these creatures before they spread too much indangering all mankind and the world itself!

It! The Terror from Beyond Space:

A little old fashion for now days, but back in it's time it was one of the most well-done and suspenseful movies out there. And even though some things in the film are hard to except now days, it is still a pretty suspenseful film. In fact, this film inspired the 1979 horror classic "Alien". Some have gone far enough to say that this is actually an earlier version of "Alien". That is not true; there are a lot, and I mean a lot of differences, but I can see that this film was certainly an inspiration for "Alien". A rocket ship takes off from Mars on a journey back to Earth with the crew unaware that a monsterous alien creature has gotten aboard. The creature then starts to kill off the crew members one by one until finally they find a way on how to kill it - to open the airlock door and suck the oxygen out into space thereby suffocating the creature to death while the crew remain safe in their spacesuits. Although, it makes no sense to have guns, gernades, and bazookas on board an exploration spacship, and that the crew didn't seem too concerned about blowing a hole in the ship's hull, this was a pretty good film. The ship was pretty darn neat, and for back in its day, pretty realistic. The ship is dark and atmospheric, and the creature was pretty damn scary. Not as scary as the one in "Alien", but still pretty damn scary; the scariest for 1958!

These films were no doubt the best and scariest ones of their time! Highly recommended!

4/5 Full screen, where is the wide sceen. Its here
  by Lawrence W. Stephens
It and Monster are good classic films from the 50's. It!, being the far better one. The fact you are looking at this you probably know already. What you might not know is next. 1:85 is made from 35mm film that is cropped in the viewfinder, top and bottom at the time of shooting. During the days of VHS why would a studio crop a 1:85 to full screen when the film minus the crop was already full screen. If it is a major film they might have done pan & scan but a lesser film, just scan it as is. You can see the cost savings. This appears to be the case also with some full screen DVDs but to a lesser degree. I believe "It! The Terror from Outer of Space" and "The Monster that Challenged the world" are these full prints. Just set your DVD player to full and TV to Zoom. Your player and TV may use different terminology. I watched It! and Monster this way (Wide 16:9) and it works! No heads cut off. No missing action. You'll notice the title and credits fit perfectly. (If they don't you don't have the set up right.) It actually played better because the close up added tension. No extraneous views of sets or background. Just as I'm sure the director and cinematographer wanted. Just crop it and watch it in wide screen.

3/5 For A Saturday Afternoon
  by Willy D. Reviewer (San Francisco,CA)
Both of these films are "B" or "C" films.

Of course both stories have absurd plot points (e.g. It! -- To try and kill the monster they shoot pistols, and rifles, and rockets at it -- inside the space ship!), but the films are okay for a lazy Saturday afternoon.