History Film / XTheUnknown

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity. Inspector [=McGill=] learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Xperiment]]'', Hammer's recent adaptation of Nigel Kneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

* TheBrigadier: Major Cartwright is readily cooperative with Dr Royston and co.

* AdultFear: A young boy suffers [[spoiler: fatal]] radiation burns.

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector [=McGill=] then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector [[=McGill=]] then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

** In a police variant, Inspector [[=McGill=]] supports Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector [[-McGill-]] then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

** In a police variant, Inspector [[-McGill-]] supports Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector [-McGill-] then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

** In a police variant, Inspector [-McGill-] supports Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector McGill then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of radioactive mud...

** In a police variant, Inspector McGill supports Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2020_07_14_at_043803_6.png]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2020_06_02_at_211422.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"“This isn’t a living organism as we know it.” ]]

* StrippedToTheBone: Exposure to the rapidly growing X causes human flesh to melt off the bones.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Xperiment]]'', Hammer's recent adaptation of Nigel Kneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

A 1956 Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector McGill then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of atomic mud...

A Film/HammerHorror venture into SciFiHorror, released 1956, directed by Leslie Norman,[[note]] with uncredited direction by Joseph Losey [[/note]] perhaps best known for ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'', and written by prolific Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. On a quarry by the Scotland village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing finds an unexpectedly strong radiation emission. With a small explosion, the earth above it splits apart in an indeterminately deep fissure, giving Lancing radiation burns. From a nearby radiation lab, Dr Adam Royston is called to investigate.That night, local boy Willie Harding, on a dare, meets something in the woods which gives him similar burns to Lancing. Dr Royston then finds his workshop to have been raided, with a trinium sample drained of radioactivity, Inspector McGill then learns several people to have died in bizarre circumstances - in which their bodies appear to have melted. So begins the search for “X,” an assailant which can cross barred windows, absorb radiation, and leaves traces of atomic mud...

** In a police variant, Inspector McGill is readily trusting of Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.

* BlobMonster: A living blob of amorphous earthen matter, X, descendant of a species which evolved on a radioactive Earth, emerges from miles beneath the ground in search of a recent abundance of radiation. It can slip through window bars, ventilation grills, and grows to colossal size.

* BlobMonster: A living blob of amorphous earthen matter, X, descended from a species which evolved on a radioactive Earth, emerges from miles beneath the ground in search of a recent abundance of radiation. It can slip through window bars, ventilation grills, and grows to colossal size.

* TheApprentice: Young Peter Elliot aims to follow the work of Dr Royston. In a failed demonstration of the device, his note of a possible malfunction persuades Dr Royston to try field use of the device.

* AgentScully: Administer John Elliot, impatient with Dr Royston’s ambitious experiments, staunchly doubts the emergence of a subterranean predator.

* FreudWasRight: In ‘’Hammer and Beyond: the British Horror Film’’, Peter Hutchings notes parallel of a monster released by a crack in the earth with, in the recent ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Xperiment]]'', a mutation spread by a crashed rocket.

* NothingIsScarier: Little is scene of the mysterious attacks until later on.

* FreudWasRight: In ‘’Hammer and Beyond: the British Horror Film’’, Peter Hutchings notes parallel of a monster released by a crack in the earth with, in the recent [[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Experiment]], a mutation spread by a crashed rocket.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To '[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Xperiment]]'', Hammer's recent adaptation of Nigel Kneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To '[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} TheQuatermassXPeriment]]'', Hammer's recent adaptation of Nigel Kneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To '[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} TheQuatermassXPeriment]], Hammer's recent adaptation of Nigel Kneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

* DeathBySex: In the hospital radiation room, a secret liaison with Nurse Zena leads Dr Kelly to [[spoiler: a graphically fatal encounter with X]].