When Worlds Collide (1951)
Ever wonder what would happen when one wished upon a rogue star – let alone a planet?
Brief Backstory
The 1950s was full of interests in threats from outside of Earth; some involved visitors from other planets who greeted Earth by murdering, but there were a few that involved the “visitors” being actual planets. When Worlds Collide was one of these, and was the second sci-fi movie to be produced by George Pal, who had already raked in the success of Destination Moon.
While considered to be innovative for the time, When Worlds Collide, like War of the Worlds, has apparently suffered from the curse of aging, and hasn’t really held up as well as many other sci-fi horror classics like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.
Story
A planet named Bellus is on a course to pay a visit to Earth, which will lead to global extinction. Scientists across the world build ships to get the hell out of there before Bellus and Earth decide to have the big group hug and sacrifice the human race.
Random Facts
The trailor mentioned Noah’s Ark, which is painfully obvious if you’ve ever read the novel.
Often times, When Worlds Collide would be released as a double feature with War of the Worlds. This was done in 1977.
Criticism for When Worlds Collide is often geared toward the religious material.
Some scenes were reused for War of the Worlds.
Random Opinions
If you think about it, this is an adaptation of the Noah’s Ark tale. Not a bad thing, but the execution isn’t the best.
Although not truly considered a horror movie, I still consider this a horror movie given the subject matter.
Okay I’ll bite; I haven’t seen the whole movie, just some of the clips, and it’s just not that great. George Pal was a really good producer/filmmaker, but I can’t agree his sci-fi works come close to as good as his fantasy works.
The ship reminds me of the one CJ and Edison had in JumpStart 2nd Grade.
Pros
- Nice and tense for a horror movie.
- As stated earlier, the scene of the rocket taking off is breathtaking for the early 1950s.
Cons
- Bible quotes are littered all over and come off as somewhat offending to myself. Having a church choir at the very end doesn’t seem fitting either.
- Sorry, but I have to question George Pal’s religious beliefs when his production involves the lottery. I hate to be nitpicky but resorting to the lottery is against Christianity if I remember correctly.
- Also it would’ve been better if they chose people by their skills. Someone to farm, hunt, etc. Futurama had a concept similar to this and handled it better.
- The ultimate collision is barely shown. You see Earth with a ring of fire but that’s about it. Kind of insulting even for the fact this came out in 1951.
- This has aged horribly. Even if the visuals haven’t held up, the society in this movie is dated as hell; and even for the early 1950s it just doesn’t work.
- Zira is literally a background painting, almost like in JumpStart 2nd Grade with the planets.
- Obviously this wouldn’t happen in real life. War of the Worlds was like that, but you could replace the martians with something else like the Nazis. Now believe me, there do exist very scary movies that involve things that are impossible to happen but some of those were much scarier and for the right reasons.
Rating: 2.5/10 – Terrible
Although you might like this better than I did, the Thing and the Day the Earth Stood Still are far better alternatives. Ignore this one and stick with War of the Worlds, or preferably Tom Thumb or The Time Machine. A better adaptation of Noah’s Ark is done in Fantasia 2000.
One response to “When Worlds Collide”
-
Hear me out, I’m not a big of old school Horror films. I prefer a few from the ’80s, ’90s to present day. There’s a ton of legit Sci-fi Horror. If you wanna see good ones worth your spare time, check out Alien: Director’s Cut, Aliens: Director’s Cut, John Carpenter’s The Thing, A Quiet Place, Annihilation, Videodrome & David Cronenberg’s The Fly. You’ll thank me later.
Leave a Reply