The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms marked the beginning of a ground-breaking special effects career that would belatedly earn Ray Harryhausen a honorary Oscar in 1992. Required to produce convincing effects on a budget of just $200,000, Harryhausen experimented with a new technique for inserting mythical creatures into real-world backgrounds called split-screen. Over the next thirty years, Harryhausen would use his pioneering production style in films that are still considered classics of their genre, including Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years BC and Clash of the Titans. The origins of split-screen, a system of rear projection onto overlapping screens, lay in the stop-motion photography invented by movie pioneer Willis O’Brien, used most famously in King Kong. The degree of realism achieved in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms made the film one of the most influential sci-fi productions of the 1950s.

Special Features

• The Rhedosaurus and the Rollercoaster: Making The Beast featurette
  
• Harryhausen and Bradbury: An Unfathomable Friendship featurette
  
• Theatrical trailer
  
• Easter Egg

DVD Technical Information:

• Black and White
  
• Running Time: 77 minutes
  
• Audio: Mono
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  
• Full Screen