Category: Monsters
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The Wasp Woman
The ageing CEO of a cosmetics company uses an untested wasp serum to rejuvenate herself. Although lauded for its feminist subtext and Susan Cabot’s performance, this 1959 effort suffers from a flat script and is not one of Roger Corman’s best. 4/10
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The Killer Shrews
Scientists grow vicious shrews the size of coonhounds on a mysterious island. Gordon McLendon’s 1959 low-budget cult classic has a cliché-ridden, casully racist and talky script, but it’s straightforward, competently filmed and manages to entertain. 4/10
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The Giant Gila Monster
Good-mannered teens in a small Texas town fix up their hot rods and chase a giant lizard with the help of a friendly sheriff in this legendary 1959 howler. Despite its saccharine and meandering script and lazy special effects, it’s professionally made and has a certain charm. 3/10
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Teenagers from Outer Space
A maverick alien from a fascist planet seeks refuge with an Earth girl in Tom Graeff’s one-man production from 1959. While exceedingly silly and completely lacking in production values, this no-budget cult classic is impossible to hate because of its wholesome, childish charm. 3/10
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Invisible Invaders
John Carradine explodes and comes back as an alien-controlled zombie intent on taking over the world. But he doesn’t reckon with sci-fi stalwart John Agar. Eddie Cahn’s final SF movie from 1959 has a few good ideas, but is ultimately a forgettable cheapo programmer. 3/10
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The Monster of Piedras Blancas
Bodies start piling up at the small town of Piedras Blancas when the lighthouse keeper neglects to feed the local gill-man hiding in the caves. This silly but charming 1959 independent production is a love letter to the monster movies of old. 4/10
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Monsters and Moon Landings: the Lost Filipino Sci-Fi Films
The Philippines was a major producer of sci-fi movies in the 50s, but few of the films have ever been seen by modern film scholars and fans, since most of them have been lost, and few have aired on TV. Here we take a look at the six first, lost,…
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Behemoth the Sea Monster
A radioactive dinosaur stomps London in this British-American 1959 co-production. Writer/director Eugène Lourié all but presents a carbon copy of his previous hit The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion work is rushed and sloppy. It’s not terrible, but by the numbers. 4/10
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First Man Into Space
A maverick pilots his rocket plane into space and comes back as a vampiric monster. This 1959 low-budget US/UK cooperation takes its inspiration from The Quatermass Xperiment, but lacks its predecessors quality, atmosphere and intelligence. Still, it’s a competent and fairly entertaining programmer. 4/10
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The Cosmic Man
Alien John Carradine lands his space ship in Bronson Canyon and causes a war of words between a military man and a scientist about what to do with the visitor. A cheaply produced 1959 programmer, this talky cold war parable has a baffling script, but is mostly harmless. 4/10
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Monster on the Campus
The juices from a prehistoric fish turns a mild-mannered professor into a raging Neanderthal in Jack Arnold’s 1958 monster programmer. While a fairly entertaining low-budget romp, the film’s weak, contrived and repetitive script and sub-par special effects make it a low-point in Arnold’s career. 4/10
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The Colossus of New York
What happens when an altruistic scientist’s brain is placed in a monstrous metal body without a heart? The not too surprising answer is to be found in Paramount’s curious but overrated 1958 B-movie. 4/10
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Frankenstein’s Daughter
Dr. Frankenstein Jr continues his grandfather’s experiments in American suburbia – but this time it’s going to be a female monster. Richard Cunha’s 1958 “shocker” is low-budget schlock for the drive-in market, but it avoids scraping the bottom of the barrel. 3/10
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The Jungle
An Indian princess and her two romantic rivals investigate claims of prehistoric mammoths wreaking havoc on villages. A US/Indian co-production starring Marie Windsor & Cesar Romero, this 1952 B jungle/SF adventure is competent but dull, saved only by its Indian locations. 3/10
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Missile to the Moon
A scatterbrained 1958 retread of Cat Women of the Moon, Richard Cunha’s cardboard rocket takes us to yet another civilisation inhabited by perky beauty pageant winners and their evil queen. A so-bad-it’s-good classic. 3/10
