Tag Archives: monster

Forbidden World (1982)

December 10, 2022 Ken Miller Leave a comment

This slimy, mutant muck gets everywhere!

Slimy lumps of self-replicating meaty protein! — Watch out for the lumps of self-replicating meaty protein!

Please don't step in the mutated gunge — Please don’t step in the mutated gunge

Directed by Allan (PROGRAMMED TO KILL) Holzman, written by Tim (GHOST WARRIOR) Curnen, from a story by Jim (CHOPPING MALL) Wynorski and R.J. (BEASTMASTER 2) Robertson and starring Jesse (SILENT RUNNING) Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles, Fox Harris and Michael Bowen.

Poster — ‘Part alien… part human… all nightmare’

Also known as MUTANT and SUBJECT 20, this Roger Corman-produced ALIEN rip-off is lurid, colourful, exploitative and splattery. It uses some of the sets that were featured in Corman’s GALAXY OF TERROR (1981), a film on which James Cameron was the production designer.

This story concerns space ranger Mike Colby (Vint), who arrives at a research station that is under threat from a mutant organism that has evolved from an experimental life form, known as ‘Subject 20’, that has been created by the group of scientists on planet Xarbia.

SAM-104 (Don Olivera) and Mike Colby (Jesse Vint)

With some oddly edited moments and an okay electronic score, this film presents us with a mutated creature that turns its human victims into lumps of self-replicating meaty protein.

There's lots of fluid dribbling and dripping about — There’s lots of fluid dribbling and dripping about the place

As the organism evolves, it gains a maw full of big teeth

Venturing out onto the planet's surface... — Venturing out onto the planet’s surface…

...they come across this toothsome thingy — …they come across this toothsome life form

A cocoon-type thingy attached to the rocks

Obviously aiming at the young male market, the movie has the two female characters, Tracy Baxter (Dunlap) and Dr. Barbara Glaser (Chadwick), taking saunas & showers… even though there’s a monster on the loose!

Tracy Baxter heads for the sauna/sunbed room, which is, of course, essential on all distant research bases! — Tracy Baxter heads for the sauna/sunbed room, which is, of course, an essential feature of all distant research bases!

Dr. Barbara Glaser is rather, erm, underdressed

Tracy and Barbara even try to communicate with the creature whilst wearing very short bathrobes. This doesn’t end well when one of the women gets transfixed by a spiked tentacle. Ouch!

"I know! Let's try to communicate with the revolting mutant beast whilst wearing bath robes!" — “I know! Let’s try to communicate with the revolting mutant beast whilst wearing bathrobes!”

So is this a classic creature feature? Well, it certainly doesn’t reach the heights of science fiction greatness, that’s for sure, but it manages to be a pretension-free sci-fi-horror flick that is a perfect example of the kind of exploitative, pulpy, gaudy production that got made in the 80s.

And the film definitely scores points for giving us a finale with a difference: we get to see the hero performing DIY surgery on a scientist suffering from cancer, so that he can remove the large tumour… and then feed it to the creature, which then proceeds to vomit itself to death!

Classy stuff!

The creature suffers from terminal upchucking!

Some posters…

Some other cool stuff…

Scream Factory SteelBook cover with artwork by Laz Marquez

And here’s a behind the scenes shot…

Behemoth (2011)

November 28, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

That's certainly a big Behemoth! — That’s certainly a big Behemoth!

With deaths and quakes occurring around Mount Lincoln, it is eventually discovered that beneath the mountain lurks… Behemoth!

This movie was the 23rd film in the ‘Maneater Series’ (this was the brand name, logo and look given to a series of made-for-television horror films produced by RHI Entertainment, distributed by Vivendi Entertainment). Other movies that were part of the Maneater Series included GRIZZLY RAGE (2007), MALIBU SHARK ATTACK (2009) and WYVERN (2009).

"It's the size of the mountain!" — “It’s the size of the mountain!”

BEHEMOTH, which stars Ed Quinn, Pascale Hutton and William Bruce Davis, was premiered on January 15th 2011 on the SyFy Channel, so I guess it’s not a surprise that the acting, production values, script and special effects for this TV movie are not of the highest standard.

A mountain... a monster... a massacre — A mountain… a monster… a massacre

I’ll be honest: I didn’t focus too much on the storyline & acting, but I did quite like the Behemoth critter itself, once it rises from the ground. The CGI ain’t anything to write home about and during the finale the Behemoth basically just flaps its tentacles around a bit on top of the mountain, before beefy Bradley Cooper lookalike Ed Quinn blows it up (quite easily) with a rocket launcher, but the big, goofy, novel-looking beast is a fun creation. So here are some shots of the Behemoth to enjoy…

A giant monster eye peers through a hole in the mountainside…

...and then a tentacle pokes from the hole! — …and then a tentacle pokes from the hole: run!

At one point the Behemoth’s head pokes from the ground and gobbles up a character when he falls from the cliff he’s clinging to…

The Behemoth's knobbly outer skin reminds me a bit of the armoured carapaces of the Zargs in WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS — The Behemoth’s knobbly outer skin reminds me a bit of the armoured carapaces of the Zargs in WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS

Here are a bunch of pics of the Behemoth once it finally bursts from the summit of the mountain…

Huge, crab-like legs and tentacles emerge

It that central, toothy section a nod to the Sarlacc?

The weird-lookin' Behemoth crawls to the top of Mount Lincoln — The weird-lookin’ Behemoth crawls to the top of Mount Lincoln

Does the Behemoth's face resemble the monster on the cover of Blue Öyster Cult's album Cultösaurus Erectus? — Does the Behemoth’s face resemble the monster on the cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s album Cultösaurus Erectus?

Ed Quinn aims his rocket launcher at the Behemoth... — Ed Quinn aims his rocket launcher at the Behemoth…

...and he needs to shoot the rocket through the monster's mouth! — …and he needs to shoot the rocket straight down the monster’s mouth!

A pleased Ed Quinn flies off in a helicopter

Finally, some DVD and VCD covers…

Well, this isn't a very accurate depiction of the monster — Well, this isn’t a very accurate depiction of the monster!

Thirst (2015)

July 23, 2021 Ken Miller 2 Comments

Alien critter alert! — Toothy-faced beastie!

The staff and teenagers at a wilderness boot camp for problem teens are attacked by a vicious bio-mechanical alien. With nobody nearby to help them, they are forced to fight back on their own.

The poster artist doesn't seem to know the movie is set in a desert... — The poster artist doesn’t seem to know the movie is set in a desert…

This is a just-about-okay flick that is better than the stuff produced by the Asylum, for instance (which I know isn’t saying much!)

Directed by Greg Kiefer, THIRST features almost-okay (or at least acceptable) CGI, but some of the cliched characters get pretty irritating, which affects the potential watchability and enjoyment of the movie – and I think it would have been better if the alien’s origin had been gone into.

If you fancy watching a bunch of one dimensional protagonists getting bumped off by a CGI critter that looks its best in the night scenes (but is featured in a lot of bright daylight scenes) this could well be the cliche-ridden flick for you!

Creature concept design by Mauricio Ruiz…

Shame the creature in the movie wasn't as cool as this original design — Shame the creature in the movie wasn’t as cool as this original design

Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)

July 11, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Tough criminal boss Alexander Ward (Frank Wolff) oversees a small heist team intent on stealing gold bars from a bank vault in snowy South Dakota. The plan involves one of the criminals, Marty Jones (Richard Sinatra – cousin of Frank Sinatra), setting off an explosion in a nearby gold mine to act as a diversion as the bank is robbed. The mine is the home of a spider-like monster, however, which pursues Ward’s crew as they head for a remote cabin, led by local guide Gil Jackson (Michael Forest), who is, at first, unaware that he’s helping criminals fleeing the scene of their crime. Gil finds himself falling for Ward’s lover Gypsy (Sheila Noonan), who tells him that the gang intends to kill him…

BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE was the directorial debut of Monte (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) Hellman and is an interesting hybrid of heist flick and monster movie. With tough dialogue and heist plot setup, this low budget film is initially like something you’d read in a pulpy crime paperback, but a cobwebby creature is added to the mix, making this a novel Corman-produced curio.

The film was originally released with THE WASP WOMAN

The lack of budget is obvious when it comes to the creature, which is mainly represented as a long prop arm poked on-screen and a couple of quick shots where it is inserted into location scenes via double exposure (which makes you think it might be a spirit of some kind because it is see-through). The monster is definitely meant to be a physical creature, though, and there’s a decent finale where the various characters encounter the beast in a remote cave.

The creature keeps its victims webbed-up and alive, so that it can take its time feeding on them, which I think is quite a creepy concept for a 50s B-movie. In one effective moment we see the creature’s first victim covered in a cocoon of web, stuck between two trees, and we realise that the monster has pursued the group into the mountains and has brought the initial victim along with it (as an on-the-go snack!)

Cocooned amongst the trees... — Cocooned amongst the trees…

Though the funky-looking, furry-faced, long-armed critter is very lo-fi, I still rather like this cheaply-made creature feature.

Octaman (1971)

June 12, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

A scientific expedition, financed by a circus owner, goes in search of a humanoid octopus mutation in Mexico.

poster art — Horror heap from the nuclear trash!

Written and directed by Harry Essex, who wrote IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), this cult flick’s major (only!) selling point is the fun creature costume created by Rick Baker and Doug Beswick. The rubbery, tentacled critter is often shot and lit in less than dynamic ways, but it is on screen a LOT!

Don't mess with Octaman! — Don’t mess with Octaman!

In the film the fire 'sucks' the air from around Octaman: great science! — In the film the fire ‘sucks’ the air from around Octaman, even though this is taking place outside: great science!

Earlier in the movie we get to see a small mutant octopus that can crawl on land and apparently likes to live in fresh water. Later, there’s a sequence where the characters trap Octaman in a circle of fire, sedate it and imprison it under a net, which is silly but cool. But there’s a very tedious sequence towards the end of the film, focusing on the protagonists crawling endlessly around a cave, that is far, far from cool.

As Travis J Hill Cartoonist (a moderator for the Monster Zone Facebook group) says: What’s more fun than a barrel o’ cephalopod?

For the most part, however, if you’re a creature feature fan you’ll probably find this is a fairly watchable, low budget, cheesy, painless time-waster with a very shaky grasp of scientific principles. It stars Kerwin (7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) Mathews, Jeff (THIS ISLAND EARTH) Morrow and Pier (SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME) Angeli, who gets carried off by Octaman at one point.

On a sad note, Pier Angeli was found dead in her Beverly Hills home (apparently from an accidental barbiturate overdose) before production on the film was completed.

Octaman carries off Pier Angeli — Getting carried away…

Behind the scenes shot of Read Morgan, who wore the costume

Octaman jumps from the RV — It’s in the RV!

The Young Cannibals (2019)

May 25, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

In a pre-title sequence two desperate men are shown eating part of a dead colleague on a snow-covered mountain. A third man refuses to take part in this. When the three men walk onwards, the two who had eaten the flesh start acting scared, as if they can see something up ahead. The man who’d not succumbed to cannibalism can’t see what is pursuing the others. This unseen force lifts up one of the flesh eaters, throws him to the snowy ground and bloodily rips into him.

Only those who've eaten human flesh can see the creature... — Only those who’ve eaten human flesh can see the creature…

A victim is attacked — …and it hunts them down and kills them

The movie now switches location to the UK and we watch Ethan (Benjamin Sarpong-Broni) devising a way to get his girlfriend Nat (Megan Purvis) out of the mental health facility she is currently staying in. The couple have planned this escape so that Nat can celebrate her birthday with a bunch of friends on a weekend camping trip.

The land they are camping on is owned by Blackwood (David Patrick Stucky), who we recognise as the surviving flesh eater from the opening sequence. Blackwood generously offers the campers a container of raw hamburger patties. The friends enjoy this free meal, unaware that the burger patties contain human flesh…

Blackwood reappears and tells the group what they’ve eaten – and he explains that the local woodland is inhabited by a creature that hunts and kills anyone who has consumed human flesh. Blackwood’s plan is to use the friends as offerings, hoping that the monster (that has presumably stalked him from the mountains) will gorge on them and will leave him alone for a while.

The friends must now try to keep out of the creature’s clutches, and this really should’ve provided the film with lots of opportunities to give us tension and action, but there’s a fair bit of running time where not much happens and we get characters having “you weren’t there to help”-type drama moments instead.

Brother and sister have a 'you-weren't-there-for-me' moment — Brother and sister have a ‘you-weren’t-there-for-me’ moment

The movie inevitably ends with a final girl confronting Blackwood and dealing with the pursuing creature.

Nat covers herself in another victim's blood — Nat covers herself in another victim’s blood

This low budget movie looks okay visually, has practical effects and features a decent synth score by Gabe Castro, so it’s a shame a lot of the film is basically a bunch of rather one-note characters walking and running about in the woods.

What I liked most about the movie was the central idea, which is pretty cool: if you eat human flesh you will be hunted down and killed by a creature that ONLY cannibals can see (non-cannibals can only see the victims being attacked, with the creature remaining invisible to them).

The suggestion that the creature can’t see you if you cover yourself with a dead person’s blood doesn’t seem well thought-through, however. Surely most cannibals get covered in a dead person’s blood (because they’re eating a corpse), so this must be a real problem for a creature that only hunts down cannibals!

The guy with the rifle can't see the monster holding up Ethan because he hasn't munched on human flesh — The guy with the rifle can’t see the monster holding up Ethan because he hasn’t munched on human flesh

This monster is a humanoid creature with a big, tooth-filled mouth, but it is never seen as clearly as depicted in the film’s poster: it is always shot cloaked in shadows, filmed from a distance, or shown in extreme close-up.

The poster showed the beastie far more clearly

In the end the movie just fails to be very memorable, which is a pity, as it had potential.

It's looking out the window! — It’s looking out the window!

The Bone Snatcher (2003)

May 21, 2021 Ken Miller 2 Comments

The creature seen through a rifle scope — What is this thing?!

A search team looking for missing geologists in an African desert encounter a swarm of black particles/creatures that eat the flesh off victims and then wrap around the bones to become ambulatory monsters.

Ignore this poster: the creature is not a swarm of ants

The team discovers flesh-stripped corpses

The team starts getting picked off by these things and they eventually have a showdown in an abandoned mine, where it is discovered that the black swarm is controlled by a balloon-sized, egg/cocoon-like hive-mind kind of thing.

The black mass of 'particles' — The black mass of ‘particles’

Consumed by black stuff in his sleeping bag!

A victim gets his arm eaten by the swarm

Director Jason Wulfsohn’s film isn’t perfect, with rather forced tension amongst the characters, resulting in an overabundance of bickering. However, there is stuff to like too. The cinematography, aided by the desert location, is decent and the acting’s okay, with Warrick Grier standing out for me as Karl: the gung ho, trigger-happy member of the team.

Warrick Grier plays Karl — Warrick Grier plays gun-toting Karl

The film remains watchable mainly because of the creatures, which look pretty good: a mix of flowing black particles and pieces of skeletons or body parts (such as a victim’s face, or a fleshless skull, etc). If a creature gets shot it simply reverts back to a mass of particles and seeps back into the desert, leaving the gnawed bones behind that it had been using as its own temporary skeleton. These creatures really should have had more screen time. Shame.

One of the creatures just before it is shot

A memorable moment occurs when one of these bone snatcher creatures approaches the main characters in the night, wearing the face of one of their friends. It then proceeds to disgorge a squirming mass of black particles from the mouth of its flesh-mask!

It's wearing their team mate's face! — A bone snatcher critter wears their team mate’s face!

Barfing up some more black particles. Nice

I feel the origin of these particle-things would have worked better if it had been some kind of African supernatural force, which was hinted at when the characters encounter a bunch of strange, bug-eyed totems in the desert. The final revelation that the black swarm is controlled by a small, orange blob-sack hive-mind (that can just be stabbed) comes across as rather underwhelming.

So this is the big, bad controller of the creatures?!

Still, the creatures are cool.

All Through the House (2021)

May 16, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

The monster looms closer — This certainly isn’t Santa!

On a snowy Christmas Eve, a young brother and sister quietly sneak downstairs to hopefully get a fleeting glimpse of Santa as he leaves presents under the christmas tree. But they actually discover that ol’ Saint Nick is a grotesque-looking, raw-fleshed, toothy creature!

The creature lurks behind the christmas tree — What’s lurking behind the christmas tree?

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE is a 7 minute episode from the second season of Netflix’s animated anthology series LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS and it wonderfully mixes cuteness with creepiness.

The creature knows if you've been good... — The creature knows if you’ve been good…

Directed by Elliot Dear, this animated short from Blink Industries first hints that we’re not going to see your typical Mr Clause when a long, prehensile probe-tongue snakes onto the screen to suck up the milk and snatch away the cookies that’ve been left out for hungry Santa!

The tongue-tentacle appears... — The tongue-tentacle appears

The gift-giving creature is a marvellous creation: it has a toothy maw reminiscent of the eyeless, tooth-faced alien from THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983), mixed with some overlong forelegs that make it look a little like the critter in CLOVERFIELD (2008). Actually, this festive beastie also reminds me quite a bit of the large, pink-skinned thing featured in METAMORPHOSIS: THE ALIEN FACTOR (1990). This santa-beast also possesses human-like arms & hands that it uses in an amusing, expressive way!

The weird creature approaches... — The weird creature approaches the kids

Anyway – regardless of exactly which previous movie monsters reminded me of this episode’s cool, novel-looking creature – ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE proves to be a short, sweet, semi-scary treat that reveals how we actually get our presents: a xenomorph-like monster vomits-up the perfectly-wrapped gifts in a stream of saliva!

The creature holds a gift — This is for you…

At the end of the story the creature growls the children’s names as it coughs-up their presents, tells them that they’re good, then crawls up the chimney. Once the beast has gone the sister is left to ask the question: what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been good?

the creature gets close — Close encounter…

The Arctic Giant (1942)

May 11, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Does this big reptile remind you of anybody?

A gigantic, frozen Tyrannosaurus Rex is discovered in the arctic. The creature is shipped over to Metropolis, where it is housed in a massive, refrigerated building attached to the city museum. After an accident wrecks the generator, the ice melts and the huge dino awakens, breaks free, runs amok, but is eventually stopped by Superman.

This nine minute Fleischer Studios cartoon was the fourth (of seventeen) Technicolor shorts based on DC’s Superman – and it’s my favourite.

The dino is shipped to Metropolis in a refrigerated tanker

THE LOST WORLD (1925) had ended with a brontosaurus stomping through the streets of London and the finale of KING KONG (1933) had the titular beast creating havoc in New York, but these creatures were not too exaggerated size-wise, whereas the Tyrannosaurus in THE ARCTIC GIANT is a truly Kaiju-scale beast, hinting at the kind of monster action that would appear on cinema screens from the 1950s onwards.

The monster escapes! — Of course he will!

The mega Tyrannosaurus in this short makes the most of his brief rampage: he wrecks the museum, stomps on police cars, totals an elevated train track, smashes through a dam, knocks aside firefighter boats, pulls down a suspension bridge and threatens a baseball stadium.

…and the elevated train track is stomped on…

…and the critter pushes through the dam…

The bridge is totalled — …and this bridge must be torn apart too, because it’s in the way!

Superman follows after the super-sized critter, quickly filling the hole in the dam with a boulder and temporarily fixing the bridge.

Lois Lane, as usual, stubbornly wants to get in on the action and is almost eaten by the monster at the end, before Superman flies into the dino’s mouth, prises its jaws open and carries Lois to safety.

With story elements that would later feature in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), GODZILLA (1954) and many other creature features that involve colossal monsters, this is a very enjoyable short.

The dino is put on display — The arctic giant is eventually displayed to the public… but did this work out for KING KONG or GORGO?!

Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien.