Film

The Angry Red Planet

Name: The Angry Red Planet
Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction, Horror
Released: 1959
Cast: Gerald Mohr, Naura Hayden, Les Tremayne, Jack Kruschen, Paul Hahn

Science fiction

A 1959 sci-fi adventure where the first manned Mars mission returns silent and damaged, forcing NASA to piece together what happened on the red planet. Shot in vibrant Cinemascope with creature-feature sensibilities, it's pulp space opera that wears its low budget as part of its charm—earnest, weird, and deeply of its era.

TMDb rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love vintage B-movies where the earnest seriousness and garish Martian sets are half the fun, and you enjoy watching a film's ambitions outrun its budget.

Skip it if you need tight plotting and convincing science, since the crew talks in clipped, stagey exchanges and the middle drags with long stretches of wandering around sets.

What it asks of you: At under an hour and a half, it is short and unfussy, asking you to accept its cheap premise straight-faced and stay patient through slow, talky stretches.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Forbidden Planet1956

The gold standard of 1950s sci-fi spectacle: gorgeous Technicolor, a thinking-person's script, and genuine dread. If you loved the vibe of Angry Red Planet, this is what the template looked like at its best.

But It's slower and more philosophical than you might expect, and the Walter Pidgeon monologues can test patience.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers1956

Cold War paranoia channeled into genuine creeping terror. Low budget, high concept, and the paranoia feels earned rather than campy. A masterclass in restraint.

But It's bleak in a way that doesn't offer catharsis, and some find the ambiguous ending frustrating rather than brilliant.

20 Million Miles to Earth1957

A returning space mission encounters an alien creature—creature effects by Ray Harryhausen that still hold up. Fast, fun, and knows exactly what it is.

But The story is thinner than the monster effects, and the human drama feels perfunctory by modern standards.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Angry Red Planet

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

First Men in the Moon1964

Both films center on a returning space mission's aftermath and what the journey has changed about the survivors. But where Angry Red Planet plays the strangeness straight, First Men treats it as nostalgia—the inverse emotional register for the same structure.

Ray Harryhausen effects on the lunar surface, but framed as a confession from an elderly man decades later. Melancholy and wondrous—it's about memory and loss, not just adventure.

But It's more fairy tale than hard sci-fi, and the pacing is deliberately dreamlike rather than propulsive.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space1958

A claustrophobic haunted-house film that happens to be set on a spaceship returning from Mars. Tight, tense, and a clear DNA ancestor to Alien.

But The budget shows in every seam, and the creature suit is occasionally more funny than frightening.

The Day the Earth Stood Still1951

Intelligent sci-fi drama with Gort and Klaatu as indelible icons. Michael Rennie brings gravitas to first contact; it's about ideas, not spectacle.

But It's fundamentally a message film, and the sermon can overwhelm the story if you're looking for pure adventure.

Planet of the Apes1968

A returning space mission with a twist nobody saw coming. Charlton Heston at his earnest best, real makeup effects, and a third act that still lands.

But The pacing in the middle drags, and some of the ape-heavy scenes feel repetitive before the finale kicks in.

The Incredible Shrinking Man1957

A man exposed to radiation begins shrinking—existential horror wrapped in sci-fi wrapping. Philosophically rich and genuinely unsettling, especially the ending.

But It's more meditation on mortality than adventure, and the final monologue won't land if you're not in the headspace for it.

Quatermass and the Pit1967

British sci-fi that builds dread methodically. A spacecraft found underground suggests something ancient and wrong. Atmosphere for days.

But The pacing is glacial, and it requires patience for slow-burn horror to pay off.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars1964

Stranded astronaut survives on Mars with ingenuity and desperation. Genuinely inventive problem-solving and Technicolor landscapes that feel alien without being garish.

But It's more survival drama than sci-fi spectacle, and the ending feels rushed after a contemplative middle hour.

World Without End1956

Another returning mission that discovers the unthinkable has happened in their absence. Where Angry Red Planet finds horror on another world, this finds it by coming home.

A space crew returns to Earth to find it's the far future and transformed beyond recognition. Low-budget time-slip adventure with genuine unease about what home has become.

But The plot mechanics are creaky and the dialogue is full of 1950s attitudes that haven't aged well, even for the era.

The Quiet Earth1985

Both are about what you find when familiar things become hostile and alien. But where the 1959 film looks outward to Mars, this turns inward—same existential vertigo, different direction.

A man wakes to find he's alone on Earth after a scientific experiment goes wrong. Isolation, paranoia, and cosmic dread without aliens—it's Angry Red Planet's emotional core transplanted to a devastated Earth.

But It's a New Zealand production with uneven acting and a low budget that sometimes shows, plus the pacing sprawls in the middle act.