I guess that 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' could be said to be Jack Arnold's masterpiece .... It certainly is without any doubt, one of the best & most important examples of early filmic (1950's ) Science fiction and is written by Richard Matheson, he of .... 'I Am Legend', which Sci - Fi film fans will know as 'The Last Man On Earth' / The 'Omega Man' - so therefore we have a very literate script that, in some measure tries to give a meaning - as regards our role as part of the Universe and does not attempt to just show us some 'Hokey' monsters putting the frighteners on the audience !! ( though it does have a pretty Scary Spider, which gets more & more Gi - normous to our little Hero, the smaller HE gets !! ) .... It is a film that really makes you think about those - 'Universe type' - of questions though, if you know what I mean .... The film as a whole is very, very good and apart from Ace direction from Mr. Arnold and Grand Special Effects, we have a sensitive portrayal from Grant Williams as the wee Title fellow. Of course there are times when the subject matter could be taking a turn - to be unintentionally funny and it is a tribute to Jack Arnold and all involved in the film that this does not happen .... The climatic battle with the Spider ( who is after all, also only trying to survive the trials of life .... ) is absolutely brilliant and is perfectly staged for maximum excitement !! ( it really will have you on the edge of your seat !! ) I cannot praise this film enough and it certainly must rank as one of the best 1950's ( or for that matter, any other era .... ) Science Fiction Cinematic Adventures .... Do yourself a favour and 'Do' as the man said .... Own it !!

I love old sci-fi and fantasy films, I love the attention to detail, the cleverness, the scripts, and in particular the lack of seamless CGI, everything had to be physically done in some way or could not be filmed, and this just adds an extra fascination when such old films have managed it well.

Extensive use of traveling matts, using scenes of the actor 'cut out' from other scenes where he was filmed at a distance to appear smaller, is this movies main trick, although many simpler perspective tricks and back projection shots all come together to convince, and I do mean convince, the viewer that our main man is indeed shrinking before our eyes.

Not that there aren't still some dodgy moments of course, that 'house spider' sure looks like a large black tarantula to me, but some scenes are still to this day faultless and perfect and stunning, and you still say 'How did they do that!?', and that isn't bad for a film from the 50s!

Involving, creepy, exciting and fascinating, on so many levels, and a damn good script, and who knew radio activity was sparkly!?

Own it!