The Quatermass Xperiment (1955).  An experimental rocket crashes outside of London.  Aboard are three astronauts; or rather, there were.  Now there are two empty spacesuits and one man, Victor Carroon, who is unable to speak more than a few incoherent words and seems to be deteriorating rapidly.  What happened?

Prof. Quatermass, who designed and built the rocket, investigates the mystery and discovers to his horror what happened to the missing men.  It turns out that while in orbit the ship encountered... something that penetrated the hull and ate all three men.  "Carroon" is not really human, but an attempt by the creature to use the bodies and minds of the dead men so that it can exist on Earth.

"Carroon" escapes from the medical unit and disappears into London where he, or "it", starts attacking people, plants, and animals for food and materials that it can use to create an ideal form that it can use to reproduce and conquer the planet.  Eventually, the monstrosity is cornered in Westminster Abbey where it resembles not so much a man as the leavings from a butcher's shop.

What makes this first chapter of the Quatermass saga is that it establishes that Out There has no relation to Down Here.  It is a separate realm that operates according to different rules, if any, and man's first attempt to leave the Earth is less a bold adventure than a reckless abandoning of the protecting campfire that keeps away the glowing eyes in the darkness.  The menace isn't just alien, it's incomprehensible and its attack on Earth is so casual, so opportunistic  that, for all Quatermass's bravado about sending another rocket up, we come away less pleased about our stopping the invasion than wondering what would have happened if the attack had been more deliberate.

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