The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) has long been one of the most highly-regarded of the classic science fiction films of the 1950s, considered the Golden Age of the genre. It has lost very little of its power over the years, in part because it does not feature scientific hardware that can become dated over time, nor does it feature alien invasion or other over-used conventions of the genre. Instead, The Incredible Shrinking Man presents a timeless and thought-provoking premise--what becomes of a person who finds themselves shrinking in size in relation to the world around them? Inevitably, they discover that relationships change--both personal and societal relationships as well as the physical relationship one has with nature and the world's animal and insect life. The film can be appreciated on different levels as well. On the surface it can be seen as compelling adventure as the shrinking man does battle with the dangers he finds in his own basement, but critics and viewers have seen other levels. For example, the movie works as a study of male anxiety, as a commentary on the paranoia of living in the modern Atomic Age (a frequent convention of 1950s science fiction), or even as a philosophical tale of man's place in the universe.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is based on a novel by established science fiction, horror and fantasy author Richard Matheson (who would go on to write for the celebrated Twilight Zone TV series and to see several film adaptations of his acclaimed novel I Am Legend). Matheson shrewdly sold his novel for filming on the condition that he be allowed to write the screenplay. The film was produced very efficiently by Universal Pictures and sensitively directed by Jack Arnold, who had helmed several previous science fiction movies at the studio. The Incredible Shrinking Man was a product of the studio system, yet it was daring in many ways. Both Matheson and Arnold resisted the studio's desire for a "happy ending" to the story. Arnold wrote an ambiguously hopeful--even spiritual and existential--ending that has secured the film's reputation as an offbeat product of the studio-controlled era.