1950s science fiction cinema’s depersonalisation narratives in Britain

Depersonalisation narratives in 1950s sf cinema have most frequently been understood as reflections of American anxieties about Soviet infiltration and subversion. However, these films were also popular in Britain, where anti-communist sentiment manifested in different forms. This article positions two films, Britain’s Quatermass II (Guest 1957) and America’s It Came from Outer Space (Arnold 1953), in relation to this divergent British reception context. Resisting the tendency to see the genre only in relation to the US, it suggests the possibility of a unique and largely unexplored British reception history of 1950s sf cinema.