I enjoy science fiction movies from the 1950s. Quite a few of them feature the unexpected effects of radiation. Here are ten of my favorites.

1. Them! (1954) – Mysterious deaths in the desert. It’s giant ants produced by radioactivity from early atomic bomb tests. Excellent plot, excellent acting, and good enough special effects. The scenes during the nighttime sandstorm are memorable. The best giant insect movie.

2. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) – A huge prehistoric dinosaur is released by an atomic test in the Artic. It makes its way to New York, wreaking havoc as it goes. The creature meets its end at a Coney Island roller coaster when it’s shot by a rifle grenade armed with a radioactive isotope. This movie was the direct inspiration for “Godzilla” (1954).

3. Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) – A group of scientists go to a remote Pacific island to find out what happened to a previous expedition that vanished while studying the effects of atomic tests. Two giant crabs with super intelligence. The two crabs are defeated in the end. Very low budget, but is a surprisingly effective movie.

4. Beginning of the End (1957) – Mysterious deaths in the Midwest. It’s giant grasshoppers / locusts that got into an agriculture experiment that is growing giant food using radiation. The special effects are very weak but the movie has a surprisingly good story and acting.

5. Tarantula! (1955) – A scientist is experimenting with radiation to create super food. Bad idea. The nutrients also create a very large tarantula. Guns and dynamite have little effect but Air Force jets with napalm kill the creature. This is no award winner, but is a much better movie than you might expect.

6. Fiend Without a Face (1958) – Mysterious deaths near a U.S. Air Force base in Canada. The base is experimenting with atomic powered radar. A British scientist is also experimenting with thought projection. The result is brain creatures that are very agile and very aggressive. Pretty good stop motion photography special effects.

7. The Creeping Unknown (1955) aka The Quatermass Xperiment – A joint British-American project sends the first manned rocket into space with a three-man crew. Only one man returns, and he was exposed to cosmic radiation. He devolves into a creeping mass. In the end the creature is killed by electricity before it can reproduce and envelop the Earth.

8. The Deadly Mantis (1957) – A huge prehistoric praying mantis is released from hibernation in the Arctic by a South Seas volcano that was presumably triggered by an atomic test. The mantis works its way to New York where it hides in a traffic tunnel and is promptly killed by soldiers. Not one of the best movies on this list, but still enjoyable in my low-quality-bar opinion.

9. Monster from Green Hell (1957) – An American rocket sends wasps into space to explore the effects of cosmic radiation. The rocket lands off course in Africa. The wasps have mutated into very large and very angry beasts. In the end the wasps are destroyed by an erupting volcano. I saw this many times on TV when I was young, and for some unknown reason, this movie gave me nightmares (even though it’s not scary at all).

10. From Hell It Came (1957) – On a South Pacific island, native Kimo is falsely accused of murder by an evil witch doctor who wants Kimo’s girlfriend. Kimo is executed and his body is placed in a hollow tree stump — that has been exposed to radiation from atomic tests. The tree-Kimo gets his revenge but ultimately meets his end in quicksand. I always figured that any bad person who gets caught by the slowest moving monster in sci fi movie history deserved what they got.