Someone has uploaded the science fiction horror movie, I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), to the Internet Archive. I have never seen it before. From the description, it seems similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955), and I Am Legend (1954).
Created during Cold War-era McCarthyism these books/movies are entertaining in their own right, but are also allegories for ideological takeover, the kind we are seeing today with populist phenomena like Trumpism and QAnon,
In Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, individuals' identities are taken over by alien pods. This transformation turns them into unrecognizable, conformist versions of their former selves, reflecting the alteration of individuals under the sway of persuasive, divisive rhetoric.
Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is about the anguish of standing alone in a society that has uniformly succumbed to a dangerous ideology. It embodies the isolation, fear, and conflict that one feels when surrounded by those who have been swept up in a cultlike political movement. Critic Mathias Clasen describes it as a work born from "an anxious artistic mind working in an anxious cultural climate."
I Married a Monster from Outer Space explores personal relationships torn apart by ideological fanaticism. It encapsulates the fear and uncertainty people feel when beloved family members transform into unrecognizable zealots.
From Wikipedia:
Due to its exploitative and sensationalized title, I Married a Monster from Outer Space has long been ignored by critics and film historians, although it received respectable reviews, both in contemporary and in later reviews.[7] Variety's 1958 review wrote, "Fowler's direction, while sometimes slow, latches onto mounting suspense as action moves to climax. He gets the benefit of outstanding special photographic effects from John P. Fulton, which aid in maintaining interest."[8] Harrison's Reports declared, "This latest addition to the current cycle of science-fiction-horror melodramas is just as fantastic as the others in its category, but it is more imaginative than most and should prove to be a good supporting feature wherever such pictures are acceptable."[9] The Monthly Film Bulletin of Britain wrote, "This generally well-acted and -staged Science Fiction thriller, though novelettish in its personal story, has an intriguing situation and some effective, if rather sparse, trick camerawork."[10] Danny Peary described it as "an intelligent, atmospheric, subtly made sci-fi thriller"[7] Tom Milne of Time Out magazine found "good performances, strikingly moody camerawork, a genuinely exciting climax",[11] and Leonard Maltin called it a "pretty good little rehash of Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with "some nice, creepy moments".[12]
There's more! Again, from Wikipedia:
Film scholar Harry M. Benshoff suggests that the film features a blatant subtext of male homosexuality, citing the lead character of Bill's preference to "meet other strange men in the public park" rather than stay at home with his wife.
Watch it here:
