First man into space (1959)

That First man into space is the main inspiration for schlock-classic The Incredible melting man is pretty damn obvious with its blooddrinking mutant astronaut roaming around in the countryside looking for victims. Testpilot Dan Prescott has issues with boundaries, more specifically the boundaries within Earths atmosphere. During an experiment he goes higher than anyone has ever gone before, actually managing to leave the atmosphere but ends up inside a cosmic dustcloud that covers his spacecraft and cuts off all communication. The ship is later found in New Mexico but with no trace of the astronaut. It doesn't take long before he appears again, covered in the cool looking spacedust and thirsty for human blood and it's up to Dans brother and his girlfriend to stop him.

Ok, so I lied a little in the previous sentence: "It doesn't take long before he appears again". How the hell can 77 minutes feel so long?! The answer to that question is, fill it with a shitload of stockfootage of people operating radios! It actually takes the movie half an hour before they deliver the astronaut into the cloud of dust and it's a looong ride. But, fortunately, things get a lot better after that. When the dustcovered flesheater finally appears the movie settles into being really fun and even somewhat tense from time to time. He isn't actually evil but something has happened to his body that makes him crave blood and a craving is something you can't deny, hence my 2700+ dvdcollection. That he looks like he is covered from head to to in burnwounds makes him really effective and the filmmakers even manages to make us feel some sympathy for what remains of Prescott, in an ending that is way better than you would expect for this type of low budget scifischlock. The script is actually over all fairly serious and if they had had a bigger budget this could have been a classic. As it is now there is way too much stock footage and it's actually pretty hard to get England to look like New Mexico but f you like this type of movie and have some patience to get you through the first dull half hour you will come out of the experience a better man/woman.