This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Most of the older Scifi classic films like this usually don't turn out to go above the rest, but this movie was certainly one of those lot. I was surprised how well the effects worked in this film. The drone sound created by the vibrations of the Mantis's wings were bone chilling and realistic. The roaring was a bit unusual, but that's okay, because we are supposed to believe it's a monster mantis! I enjoyed the scene with the Greenland Eskimos in that first of all, they used real Eskimo actors, and second, it was believable (though sped up for some reason). I really liked this film, it's not among my favorites should I say, but I thin it's certainly one of the better giant monster films of its time, right among "The Land Unknown" and "The Giant Behemoth".

Giant movie monsters, usually (though not necessarily) spawn or awakened by atomic experiments, that subsequently went rampaging through unsuspecting cities could be divided into two categories in the Fifties, the decade in which they were most prevalent. The first and most famous category was reptilian in nature, and hearkened back to Willis O'Brien's Brontosaurus crushing London in 1925's The Lost World, eventually giving rise to the famous ultimate atomic nightmare Gojira (1954) (though certainly not stopping there). The second category consists of the various types of creepy crawlies that together can be sided under the general moniker of 'bugs'. As notable creatures in this regard the giant ants of Them! (1954), the gargantuan 'sixtopus' of Ray Harryhausen's It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) and the oversized spider in Tarantula (1955) deserve honorable mention. Less well known is the tremendously large praying mantis from The Deadly Mantis, which is not surprising since it offers little that has not been seen in other bug movies, save a different monstrous creature threatening mankind. Nevertheless, it's a fairly entertaining atomic age flick.Surprisingly, the origin of the titular beastie is not actually atomic. In this case, a volcanic eruption is responsible for freeing a 200-ft long prehistoric mantis – since everybody knows that in prehistoric times every animal was stupendously big after all – from its Arctic tomb. The effect is all the same though. The creature travels southwards, wreaking havoc and killing many people in its path. The United States military soon responds to the loss of its polar outposts and sends a team to investigate, which includes a paleontologist, a handsome army officer and a beautiful woman. Of course, the latter pair predictably gets more involved with each other than with the big bug running rampant, as is all too typical for movies from this era. But when the mantis finally attacks Washington D.C. decisive military action is called for and the team searches for a way to annihilate their hideous opponent. But naturally not before it has had a decent opportunity to terrorize a few national landmarks, also an ever delightful genre staple.Nathan Juran, who would continue making similar pictures like The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) and the original cult classic Attack of the 50 ft Woman (1958), serves as a capable director for crafting an enjoyable monster movie out of a by this time already worn-out premise, which betrays his qualities that would later cause him to become a valuable collaborator on several excellent Harryhausen movies, namely the rather similar 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) in which a reptilian/humanoid Venusian threatens Rome, First Men in the Moon (1964) and of course, the wonderful 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). The obvious mantis mock-up doesn't look as phony as it could have looked under the instructions of a lesser director (though a far cry from realistic), while the cast plays their parts convincingly enough for this type of B-movie. While The Deadly Mantis proves less than a stellar entry into the 'creature' subgenre of the 1950s, it remains somewhat of a cult favorite among fans of the science fiction pictures of the era. However, it's also exemplary of the tail end of the decade, that witnessed the notion of big beasties trampling both civilization and audiences' interest to death in rapid succession in ever cheaper and worse movies, despite the decent start offered by all too similar pictures in the first few years of the First Wave of science fiction films. Don't blame the mantis for that though.

Nathan Juran directed this reasonably effective monster yarn that sees a giant prehistoric preying mantis being accidentally freed from its arctic glacier tomb to kill and terrorize first the local population, then the world. A knowledgeable informed scientist(played by William Hopper) and a determined Army Col.(played by Craig Stevens) lead the fight to defeat the deadly mantis, before the human population is extinct... Although the plot is familiar("The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" comes to mind) and characters unmemorable, the model F/X of the giant mantis are quite good, with tense direction and good pace(only slowing down for the obligatory romantic subplot with Alix Tilton). Exciting tunnel climax compensates in this OK thriller.

A giant prehistoric praying mantis, recently freed from the Arctic ice, voraciously preys on American military at the Dew Line and works its way south.This film is just bad. I like the map in the beginning, but after that it gets cheesy. Why is there a giant praying mantis? I mean, you know, just one? And why is it at the North Pole? And why did they steal footage from "S.O.S. Eisberg" (1933) to show Eskimos fleeing? If you like seeing a big bug fly across the sky for 80 minutes, this is your film. But, for me, it just was not as good as many of the other big animal pictures out there... it was not menacing, and really made no sense. The scientific attempt to explain it? Non-existent!