Two years before The Blob emerged from a meteor that landed in Pennsylvania and started devouring very old teenagers, over in Scottland, a very similar creature started attacking the locals. Except this one didn’t come from outer space, from within the bowels of the earth. In X – The Unknown (1956), during some mine detection training with the army, the radioactive material used drew the attention of some creature that breaks loose onto the surface, leaving a couple of soldiers with severe radiation burns. Except with no witnesses, and the creature going back down underground, nobody can figure out what could have caused the burns on the men. That’s when you call in the scientist, Dr. Royston, played by American star Dean Jagger, which was a common thing to do for British pictures to help with foreign distribution. You also have Michael Ripper as one of the sergeants in the military.

We also have plenty of Hammer regulars here, from James Bernard providing the music, Phil Leakey working on the makeup, including some pretty impressive and nasty looking burn scars and halfway melted corpses, and Jimmy Sangster with his first feature film as a writer, while pulling double duty as production manager as well.

But now, Hammer is releasing this film in one of their special edition sets, with a ton of extras. Just like they did with their Quatermass sets, this release will have 4 discs, 2 UHD and 2 Blu-rays, with 3 versions of the film in different aspect ratios: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK theatrical version, the full screen 1.37:1 As-Filmed version, and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical version. It will also come with a double-sided poster of the original one-sheets and 8 art cards featuring facsimiles of the original UK cinema lobby cards. Plus, all of these other bonus features:

• Making-of documentary about the production of X the Unknown.
• New and archive commentaries with experts that include Nigel Kneale biographer Andy Murray, film historian David Kalat, writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman.
• Displaced and Damned: A documentary following the career of Joseph Losey – the original X the Unknown director who departed the project before shooting commenced – and his storied journey through Hollywood to Hammer films, via blacklisting and exile.
• An exploration of the groundbreaking work of special effects artist, Les Bowie, including archive audio interviews with fellow special effects technicians and audio from Christopher Lee.
• A Man on the Beach: the rarely seen short film featuring Jimmy Sangster’s first scripted work and directed by Joe Losey.
• A 120-page booklet featuring new articles on the film’s production, its relationship to the Quatermass films, cast and crew biographies, script comparisons, and more.

Not sure when this is getting released because I can’t seem to find a release date on Hammer’s website, but they are taking pre-orders now. through their website HERE.