The Flesh Eaters (1964)

Three people flying to make a cabana show get engine trouble and land on an uncharted island occupied by a mad scientist who is trying to look for a way to contain an old Nazi bioweapon consisting of flesh eating bacteria.

This is a very interesting feature by Jack Curtis. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous for an indy feature. The script and storyboards was done by Arnold Drake, who is known mostly for his work in comics. The script is actually intriguing and mixed with somewhat gory effects, makes this feature somewhat groundbreaking. They also make very good use of one beach as a full island. Improvisation at it’s finest. Fast fact: The was the movie that prompted George Romero to change the name of his movie to Night of the Living Dead

Is there any downsides to this. Other then cheesy effect (which were used quite well, I might add), I think after a while, you get tired of beach shots. Sure, you know it’s on a deserted island, but after a while, you just want to see a bit more of the inland. Give the island a sense of depth.

Dark Skys does real well with making this into a DVD. The stock is cleaned up to the best it possibly could be. Giving it a slightly natural feel. The audio is crisp and clear. Extras include short and long trailers, a radio spot and some deleted footage by Curtis of Nazi testing sequences and blooper reel. The sequence wasn’t added because not only was it almost reliant on shock, it just didn’t look right in the whole story. If it was added though, it would have beaten NoTLD as the benchmark of modern horror by four years.

3 and a half stars.

Coming Attractions…

Behemoth, The Sea Monster (1959)

While in England, a marine biologist is compelled to investigate large amounts of dead fish washing up on the coast of Cornwall. His investigations lead him to a radioactive dinosaur that was awakened from a long dormant sleep.

England’s first kaiju movie, it was to be originally an invisible monster that gave off radioactive vibes. When director Eugene Lourie couldn’t get a buyer, he gave in to an English production house demands for a tangible monster and told the scriptwriters to combine the inviso-monster with the script of a previous movie he did, The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms. Lourie also hired the talents of Will O’Brien who was well known to everyone as the man who made the King Kong model, but also the father of Stop Motion. This was O’Brien’s last film as he was struck with sickness and most of the stop motion work was done by assistants.

With that being said, this movie takes too long in building the monster up. While I don’t mind watching scientists go up the military food chain, they could have condensed it and get to the creature. The reason for this is that the effects budget was gypped and they really had to rush to make fifteen minutes of film. While the Behemoth look good at first, the editing and camera angles hid a rush job. They only had one model, so they had to be real gentle about it. In short, this was a drawn out movie because the animated footage was too short.

This DVD is part of the WB’s Cult Camp Collection: Sci-fi Thrillers collection. The audio is nice. The video is a bit natural but isn’t too bad. The extras include a trailer and commentary by Denis Muren and Phil Tippet of Equinox fame and special effects creators. While I think they would have been a great help talking about as stop motion and the work of Will O’Brien, I do think they should have gotten a third person in the fold to do commentary about the film end. Tim Lucas or someone could’ve been a good balance to Tippet and Muren. This was one of the weaker commentaries to sit through. Informative none to less.

two and a half stars.

Attack of The 50 Ft. Woman (1958)

After seeing a UFO land as well as it’s enormous inhabitant, a beautiful, but unstable heiress tries to tell anyone what she encountered. Taking it a metal relapse, her thieving husband plays along as the doubting Thomas until they encounter the UFO again. He leaves he behind the heiress at the mercy of the alien. Returned home and radiated, the heiress grows to large proportions and wreaks havoc on the town.

The Good

Directed by Academy Award winner Nathan Juran, this cult classic has great acting as well as an awesome score by Roland Stein. Stein’s score is what propelled him onto bigger and more well known sci-fi and horror features. It’s the kind of music you can listen to on it’s own.

The thing that really brings this movie out from all the rest is the way Juran decorates and lights sets due to his expertise in set design and lighting. Some of the designs are copied even to this day. He really make set pieces look really professional.

The Bad

Oh boy. Even though Juran was good at design, he was never given a decent effects budget. He had to rely on one giant rubber hand and a lot of double exposure to film just at least try to get the effect he wanted. Even in his final breath, he threw a fit about the effects of the movie. In the end, this folly helps this movie have it’s own distinct charm.

The story was too short and the dialog was cheesy. While the actors tried to carry the movie the best they could, it had the faint mac and cheese smell to it still. But then again, people were used to sitting through a hour long movie when a double feature was involved.

The DVD!!!

This is part of the Warner Bros Cult Camp Classics Sci-Fi Thrillers box set. The video is very clear and the sound is awesome crisp. Extras include commentary from movie historian Tom Weaver and actress Yvette Vickers, who was in the movie. While an essay would have been nice on the cultural impact this movie had, it all works well with the commentary alone.

Conclusion

This is a must have for the DVD collector. A time capsule of the fifties now on DVD. This is fun watching at parties or anytime really. If you’re really into film in general, this is the movie for you.

Coming Attractions…

Coming Attractions…