Prior to the late 1960’s, science fiction films were seen as being beneath the big studios. While Universal Pictures had produced some classic monster films, it was never seen as being one of the major studios. While audiences had flocked to Dracula and Frankenstein, MGM, RKO and Warner Brothers were loathe to even consider making such films. As a result, most of those pictures were produced on Poverty Row, using special effects that make audiences cringe nowadays. After the collapse of the studio system, science fiction and horror films became the bread and butter of the lower tier studios.
Why would these lower tier studios attempt to make films that required special effects that would often be beyond their capabilities and budgets? Because most of the outlandish plot lines made for dazzling movie posters that roped in audiences. Additionally, the Hayes office, which was still certifying films in the 1950’s and early 1960’s would often be less strict when it came to supernatural plot lines. Monsters and ghouls could menace scantily clad women in ways that flesh and blood human men never could on screen. Beheadings were a no-no, but if it was the hallucination of an addled mind it could not only make it into the film but the poster as well.
The standard rule that any murder or crime would have to go punished by the final reel would also get thrown out more often with science fiction films as well; these films often ended with a supernatural comeuppance that didn’t result in an arrest like with other reality grounded films. Such loopholes were regularly taken advantage of by low budget productions that needed all the help they could get.
