Villain(s)  Gargon (alien creature), aliens

Actor(s):  David Love, Dawn Anderson, Harvey B. Dunn, Bryan Grant

Brief Description  Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)—released as The Gargon Terror in the UK—is a black-and-white independent science fiction cult film written, produced, and directed by Tom Graeff. Made on a shoestring budget of roughly $20,000, the movie is a classic of the 1950s "so-bad-it's-good" drive-in cinema genre. The plot follows a young alien who rebels against his authoritarian crew to save Earth from being used as a breeding ground for giant, flesh-eating space lobsters called Gargons. The film eventually fell into the public domain in 1987 after Warner Bros. failed to renew its copyright.

Plot:
A spacecraft shaped like a drill-and-egg-beater hybrid lands in a rural area. The crew is looking for a planet to harvest "Gargons"—livestock that grows exponentially in Earth's atmosphere. A crew member named Derek (David Love) discovers a dog's collar. Realizing the planet has intelligent life, he rebels against his tyrannical captain and his bloodthirsty peer, Thor (Bryan Grant). Derek flees into a nearby town and rents a room from a woman named Betty Morgan (Dawn Bender). The two fall in love, and Derek tries to blend in as a normal human teenager.

Thor is sent to track Derek down, using a "Focusing Disintegrator Ray" to instantly vaporize Earthlings into skeletons. Meanwhile, a Gargon escapes, growing into a titanic shadow puppet monster that terrorizes the area. To stop his fleet from destroying the planet, Derek lures the alien flagship into a trap, sacrificing his own life to explode the ships and save Earth. Director Tom Graeff wore almost every hat for the project. He served as writer, director, producer, editor, special effects coordinator, and actor. Due to the severe lack of funds, the giant, terrifying Gargons were created simply by superimposing footage of a real, standard-sized lobster over outdoor scenes, or using a simple cut-out silhouette.