Sure, you've seen a few European scifi classics like Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. But have you ventured into northern and eastern Europe to uncover these gems?


Himmelskibet, Excelsior / A Trip to Mars / Das Himmelschiff (1918), Denmark

A wonderful 81-minute Danish space opera about Professor Planetarios and his crew. They are travelling to Mars, where the mystic vegetarians live. Okay, it's a bit funny, but it's really amazing.


(via ForoDVD and MarsMovies)

Rymdinvasion i Lappland / Terror In The Midnight Sun / Invasion of the Animal People (1959), Sweden

After a meteorite falls in Sweden, some reindeers are found dead. That's no meteorite — it's a spaceship with a monster, who kills and kidnaps people.

(via Movie Screenshots)

Reptilicus (1961), Denmark


Danish miners dig up a huge prehistoric dragon-like reptile's frozen tail somewhere in Lapland. But they don't know that the Reptilicus can regenerate. And then comes the rampage! This movie was a Danish-American co-production, but the original version was shot in Danish, and directed by Poul Bang. The American one was shot in English (by Sidney Pink) and released one year later.

(via Kaijuville and Rip Jagger's Dojo)

Verdens Undergang / The End Of The World (1916), Denmark

A huge comet flies toward Earth, and worldwide catastrophe is near. Natural disasters, poisonous gases and demolished cities everywhere.


(via Filmoteca HawkmenBlues, Bloedlink and Stummfilm Musik Tage)

Tainstvennyy ostrov / Mysterious Island (1941), USSR

It's an adaptation of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, and it's about five prisoners in the American Civil War. They've escaped with a stolen balloon, but crash-land on an unknown island (named Lincoln Island after the American president), where they're inventing some things between two unusual deus ex machinas.


(via sci-fi movies and Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill)

Miss Mend / The Adventures of the Three Reporters, 1926, USSR


The 250 minute spy film came in three parts, and tell the story of three people who try to avoid a biologic attack by a Western businessman. It set a box office record (1.7 million tickets sold) for its time.

(via Classic Flix, silentera and David Bordwell)

Kosmicheskiy reys / Cosmic Voyage or The Space Voyage (1936), USSR

This movie is about the first Soviet Moon expedition in 1946. There may be some problems, but of course everything will be all right.


(via Full Metal Metsavana)

Nebo zovet / Battle Beyond The Sun (1959), USSR


It tells another story of the space race: the USSR and the USA are competing to land on the Mars. The funny thing is, a few years after the Soviet release, a young film-school student named Francis Ford Coppola westernized it. He added a few shots, where space monsters are fighting, and cut the anti-American propaganda from it. Presto! Instant American B-movie.

(via Retro-Futurism and ImpAwards)

Aelita / Aelita: Queen Of Mars (1924), USSR


The first full-length movie about space travel. A young man is travelling to Mars, where he leads an uprising with the support of the planet's queen, Aelita.

(via Chicago Reader)