The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) - film review

During a boating holiday with his wife Louise, Scott Carey is enveloped in a strange mist which causes his body to glisten mysteriously.  A few months later, Scott begins to notice that his clothes are too large for him.  Convinced that he has lost two inches in height and several pounds in weight, Scott consults his doctor, who assures him that there is nothing amiss.  The same doctor revises his opinion when Scott continues to shrink.  It appears that what Scott is experiencing is an unprecedented reorganisation of the molecules in his body, caused by almost simultaneous exposure to insecticide and radioactive particles.  By the time he is three feet tall, Scott has become an object of national media interest, but what he wants is not fame but a cure for his condition.  The doctors think they have a solution, but their serum merely arrests Scott’s shrinkage for a few days.  Within a few more weeks, Scott is reduced to the size of a small toy man, living in a doll’s house.  When his wife is away, Scott is attacked by their cat and, after a desperate attempt to avoid being eaten by his feline predator, he tumbles into the basement.   Here, he finds himself in a terrifying new world.  Alone, he must fend for himself, living by instinct if he is to survive.  It is here that he faces his greatest threat, a household spider which, to him, has the proportions of a ferocious gigantic monster...

The Incredible Shrinking Man surely deserves its reputation as one of the finest of the 1950s science-fiction movies, if only on the strength of its special effects, which are extraordinarily effective for this period.  Through some inventive use of split screen, back projection, mattes and enlarged props of household objects, the film makes it remarkably easy for us to suspend our disbelief and empathise with the plight of Scott Carey as he makes his fantastic one-way voyage towards the realm of the quantum and, presumably, a close encounter with his creator.

The film is most famous for the two set-piece scenes in which the hero, adeptly played by Grant Williams, is attacked by his cat and a household spider.  What makes these sequences so memorable and frightening is the imaginative and skilful way in which they are shot and edited, so that even though the effects are not quite perfect there is a terrifying sense of reality.  This was not the first sci-fi film to feature mis-proportioned monstrosities.  Director Jack Arnold had previously given us another bout of spider-themed horror in Tarantula (1955) whilst ants had had their big moment in the classic Them! (1954).  

What sets The Incredible Shrinking Man apart from many other sci-fi B movies of this era is that not only does it offer impressive effects but it is also intelligently scripted and never loses sight of the human implications of its story.  The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson, a distinguished writer of science-fiction literature, best known for his acclaimed novel I Am Legend.   Through its first person narrative, the film conveys not only the tragic poignancy of the hero’s predicament but also the profound spiritual metamorphosis that accompanies his physical shrinkage.  Once Scott Carey has accepted the inevitable, that he will ultimately shrink to nothing, his life sudden acquires meaning and he can face his future with equanimity and an enhanced awareness of the miracle of creation.

There are some potent quasi-religious and metaphysical undertones to the film which give it a poetic, spiritual dimension that somehow doesn’t leave an unpleasant after-taste.  The haunting monologue that concludes the film was contributed by Jack Arnold and provides a fitting end to what is as much a meditation on the nature of existence as a piece of thrilling sci-fi adventure.  The Incredible Shrinking Man is as compelling a piece of science-fiction that you could hope to find in American cinema of the 1950s, and still stands head and shoulders above much of today’s effects-driven sci-fi extravaganzas.

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