Five Million Years to Earth [Quatermass and the Pit (1967)] - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 20, 1968

I remember Five Million Years to Earth scaring the daylights out of me, back in the day, when it aired on The 3:30 Movie. While I also remember being somewhat impatient for the 'bug monsters' to show up and wreck havoc upon the populace, I was in no way disappointed with what happened in the movie.

That would be the only time I would see what I now know as Quatermass and the Pit, the third Hammer Film feature adaptation of a Nigel Kneale BBC serial. Because, just as was the case with Terence Fisher's monster movie Island of Terror, the damn thing never seemed to air again. At least that is how I remember it.

This is my favorite Quatermass movie/story and the creative impact it had on the filmmakers that I grew up watching is blatant. The one that comes to my mind the quickest is, of course, John Carpenter's 1987 Quatermass homage Prince of Darkness. There was also a noticeable homage to it in the 2006 animated feature Monster House.