History Film / XTheUnknown

* BodyHorror: When an enlarged X seeps through a ventilation shaft into the hospital, contact with its radioactive body melts off the bone the flesh of Unwin.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Proximity to X boils away the facial flesh of Unwin, revealing the skull beneath.

* ImpendingDoomPOV: From the perspective of something large and fast, we see the terrified young Willie. And later, Unwin.

* ScreamingWoman: PlayedForHorror with Nurse Zena when Unwin is horrifically killed.

* TheApprentice: Young Peter Elliot aims to follow the work of Dr. Royston. His note of a possible cause of test failure persuades Dr Royston to try field use of the radiation scanners.

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

* DugTooDeep: Albeit inadvertently and indirectly - from two thousand miles underground, X emerges in search of radiation.

* ItWontTurnOff: The hospital radiation room equipment suddenly unaccountably activates - X has seeped in through a grill.

* ShooOutTheClowns: Jovially bantering [=LCpl=] "Spider" Webb and "[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Haggis]]", stationed alone on the nightly quarry, [[spoiler: have a run-in with X]].

* BodyHorror: When an enlarged X seeps through a ventilation shaft into the hospital, contact with its radioactive body melts off the bone the flesh of [[spoiler:Dr. Kelly]].

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Proximity to X boils away the facial flesh of [[spoiler:Dr. Kelly]], revealing the skull beneath.

* ImpendingDoomPOV: From the perspective of something large and fast, we see the terrified young Willie. And later, [[spoiler: Dr Kelly]].

* ScreamingWoman: PlayedForHorror with Nurse Zena when [[spoiler:Dr. Kelly]] is horrifically killed.

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

* KidAmidTheChaos: An infant girl, innocently oblivious to the danger, nears a crumbling churchyard wall, behind which approaches the colossal radioactive predator, and is narrowly pulled to safety by the reverend.

* DugTooDeep: Albeit inadvertently and indirectly - from two thousand miles underground, X emerges in search of a recently abundant radiation.

On a quarry by the Scottish village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Sapper Lancing (Creator/KennethCope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.

* GoodShepherd: The village reverend conscientiously steers villagers to the relative safety of the church and pulls a small girl to safety when X approaches.

* NuclearMutant: Dr. Royston deduces X to be of a species which, as Earth grew less radioactive, withdrew to the core. Roused by a cyclical gravitational tilt, it emerges in search of the recent abundance of radiation.

[[caption-width-right:350:"This isn't a living organism as we know it."]]

* CreepyCave: Lowered deep into fissure from which X emerged, Peter finds skeletal human remains.

* ShooOutTheClowns: Jovially bantering LCpl "Spider" Webb and "[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Haggis]]", stationed alone on the nightly quarry, [[spoiler: have a run-in with X]].

* ImpendingDoomPOV: Through the nightly trees, from the perspective of something large and fast, we see the terrified young Willie.

On a quarry by the Scottish village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing (Creator/KennethCope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.

On a quarry by the Scottish village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.

* NuclearNasty: Dr. Royston deduces X to be of a species which, as Earth grew less radioactive, withdrew to the core. Roused by a cyclical gravitational tilt, it emerges in search of the recent abundance of radiation.

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

* ScreamingWoman: PlayedForHorror with Nurse Zena, when [[spoiler:Dr. Kelly]] is horrifically killed.

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 Scottish village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.

That night, local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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=] (Creator/LeoMcKern) 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...

* AgentScully: Administrator John Elliot, impatient with Dr Royston’s ambitious experiments, staunchly doubts the emergence of a subterranean predator.
* TheApprentice: Young Peter Elliot aims to follow the work of Dr Royston. His note of a possible cause of test failure persuades Dr Royston to try field use of the radiation scanners.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: X grows big enough to cover fields and fill village streets.
* 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 and ventilation grills, and grows to colossal size.
* BodyHorror: When an enlarged X seeps through a ventilation shaft into the hospital, contact with its radioactive body melts off the bone the flesh of [[spoiler: Dr Kelly]]
* TheBrigadier:
** Major Cartwright is readily cooperative with Dr Royston and co.
** In a police variant, Inspector [=McGill=] supports Dr Royston’s evaluation of the bizarre threat.
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Willie]] eventually dies of radiation burns.
* DeathBySex: In the hospital radiation room, a secret liaison with Nurse Zena leads [[spoiler: Dr Kelly]] to a graphically fatal encounter with X.
* DontGoInTheWoods: Young Ian Osbourne and Willie Harding, on a mutual dare in the local woods, encounter X.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Proximity to X boils away the facial flesh of [[spoiler: Dr Kelly]], revealing the skull beneath.
* 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.
* FriendToAllChildren: Dr Royston gently coaxes information from traumatised young Ian Osborn.
* {{Eagleland}}: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Dr Royston.
* GoodShepherd: The village reverend conscientiously steers villagers to the relative safety of the church, and, when X approaches, pulls a small girl to safety.
* KidAmidTheChaos: An infant girl, innocently oblivious to the danger, nears a crumbling churchyard wall, behind which approaches the colossal radioactive predator, and is narrowly pulled to safety by the reverend.
* NothingIsScarier: Little is seen of the mysterious attacks until later on.
* NuclearNasty: Dr Royston deduces X to be of a species which, as Earth grew less radioactive, withdrew to the core. Roused by a cyclical gravitational tilt, it emerges in search of the recent abundance of radiation.
* SceneryPorn: Some lovely shots of the village and surrounding landscape.
* ScienceHero: Dr Adam Royston, in attempt to neutralise radioactivity via two rotating scanners, manages to direct the principal against X.
* ScreamingWoman: PlayedForHorror with Nurse Zena, when [[spoiler: Dr Kelly]] is horrifically killed.
* 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 Creator/NigelKneale's televised serial, in which a ScienceHero faces an amorphous monster which rampages with [[BodyHorror lurid]], potentially [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt cataclysmic consequences]].

* AdultFear:
** A young boy suffers [[spoiler: fatal]] radiation burns.
** An infant girl, innocently oblivious to the danger, nears a crumbling churchyard wall, behind which approaches the colossal radioactive predator, and is narrowly pulled to safety by the reverend.
** When the driver suffers radiation sickness, Peter, to his father’s alarm, agrees to drive the radiation-loaded jeep to entice X.

That night,local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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=] (Creator/LeoMcKern) 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...

On a quarry by the Scottish village of Lochside, soldiers undergo a radiation detection exercise. Latecomer Lancing (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.That night,local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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=] (Creator/LeoMcKern) 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 (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.That night,local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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=] (Creator/LeoMcKern) 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 (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.That night,local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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=] (Leo [=McKern=]) 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 (Kenneth Cope) 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 (Dean Jagger) is called to investigate.That night,local boy Willie Harding (Michael Brook), 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...