X the Unknown

X the Unknown is a 1956 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, directed by Leslie Norman and starring Dean Jagger, Leo McKern and Edward Chapman. The screenplay was written by Jimmy Sangster, his first for a feature film. In the film, a group of scientists and military personnel investigate a mysterious series of deaths by radiation exposure in rural Scotland. The film was originally conceived as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), but writer Nigel Kneale refused to let the character Bernard Quatermass be used, so the film was retooled into a standalone project. X the Unknown is significant in that "it firmly established Hammer's transition from B-movie thrillers to out-and-out horror/science fiction" and, with The Quatermass Xperimen