X The Unknown (1956)
Often thought to be a Quatermass film as it came out in between The Quatermass Experiment (1955) and Quatermass II (1957). X The Unknown isn't connected but it's easy to see how it could be lumped in with those two.
American actor Dean Jagger plays a sympathetic scientist similar to Bernard Quatermass and the story is very much of the type but it's really a film that is a being all to itself. Jimmy Sangster's first script for Hammer is a bit of a gem. In it a sludge monster (That probably glows green were it not filmed in black and white) rises from Scottish bog land during a military exercise in an attempt to find radio active materials on which to feed upon culminating in an almost siege like story centred on the local hospital as the deadly slime descends on it.
Despite hitting cinemas prior to the world beating triumvirate of Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, X The Unknown probably trumps them all in terms of pure visceral horror thanks to some great effects work as we shriek in fear as faces melt in gory glory and we witness the full effects of radiation burns on a poor child. In fact i'd hazard to say this is one of the goriest Hammer films full stop.
Director Leslie Norman (Barry's father) keeps things rolling along aided by Jagger's impressive acting turn and a typically bombastic early James Bernard score ensure we never really think this is sci-fi on a tight budget but guarantees we'll always go back for more.
An absolute classic!
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