The film was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley based on a story by producer William Alland.

The personnel at Red Eagle One, a military station in northern Canada that monitors the Distant Early Warning Line, realize that the men at one of their outposts are not responding to calls.

Commanding officer Col. Joe Parkman flies there to investigate, and finds the post destroyed, its men gone, and giant slashes left in the snow outside.

After examining the object, Ned recognizes it as a torn-off spur from an insect's leg, and narrows it down to a gigantic praying mantis.

Although the full unit opens fire on the mantis with automatic rifles and a flame-thrower, it is unscathed and moves away only after aircraft encircle it.

The Deadly Mantis was the first science fiction film made by director Nathan Juran, who has said that he came up with the idea for the opening sequence.

[2] The Deadly Mantis utilized stock Air Force footage taken from short films such as "Guardians All", "One Plane – One Bomb", and "SFP308."

[7] Andrew Smith from Popcorn Pictures gave the film a score of 4/10, writing, "Devoid of anything fresh, featuring a tired storyline, an overuse of stock footage and peppered with lifeless characters, it’s no surprise to see this drop off the radar whilst true classics likes [sic] Them!

"[8] On his website Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, Dave Sindelar criticized the feature's unmemorable characters, clumsy story, and occasionally poorly handled scenes.

[10] Universal released The Deadly Mantis on DVD in a boxed set called The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Vol.

Shout released The Deadly Mantis on Region 1 Blu-ray on March 19, 2019, with an audio commentary track by Tom Weaver and David Schecter.