[Part of the Science Fiction special in the Vienna Filmmuseum.]

The Incredible Shrinking Man is Jack Arnold‘s adaptation of Richard Matheson‘s novel, starring Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent and Paul Langton.

Plot:
After being exposed to a strange mist and some insecticide, Scott Carey (Grant Williams) slowly starts to shrink. As his size changes, so does his life. Though his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) is very supportive of him, Scott can’t really handle his transformation and grows more bitter with every inch he loses. After being attacked by his housecat, he gets stranded in the cellar, where he has to fight for survival.

Much as with Invasion of the Body Snatchers real fear never came with this film. But it, too, was quite entertaining, though round the middle it dragged and the epilogue sucked.

The special effects were quite impressive, for the most part at least. I loved that you could always tell how the effects were made and which trick was used. And interestingly enough it seemed to be mostly the same tricks that were later used in Lord of the Rings with the hobbits, even though there it was more polished. But the differently sized props, the play with perspective and, I think, splitscreen… it worked very well.

And I was quite taken by the story and by how Scott’s and Louise’ relationship develops, or better unravels as Scott’s emasculation (for that’s what it was for him) continues. Grant Williams and Randy Stuart are really wonderful. Unfortunately, the movie falls a little apart when Scott lands in the cellar (the literal and figurative low point of his story).

The whole thing with the spider was just a little ridiculous. The spider was completely minding its own business, but it was the enemy. Because it looked frightening. So, it had to be killed. And when Scott says something like, “but I had a weapon, so I was still a man”, I just had to laugh, completely ruining any tension they were trying to create.

And then the ending with that epically boring monologue (that was apparently tagged on Matheson’s script by the director) that was trying so hard to be deep… That just didn’t work at all.

Summarising: If they just could have abstained from the struggle for survival and the tacky ending, this would have been an excellent film. But it’s still fun to watch.