A salvage vessel is nearly sunk off the Irish coast by an undersea earthquake. A few nights later, a walking sea monster tangles with the fishing boats and enters the town. The salvage vessel captures Gorgo and takes it to London for display. Gorgo’s mother, who is upset and significantly larger follows his trail to London leaving a wake of destruction in her path. Starring Bill Travers, William Sylvester, and Vincent Winter. Sort of the British version of Godzilla.
After an encounter at sea with an unknown underwater creature, a naval commander works with two scientists to identify it. The creature they are dealing with is a giant, radioactive octopus that has left its normal feeding grounds in search of new sources of replenishment. As the creature attacks San Francisco, the Navy tries to trap it at the Golden Gate Bridge but it manages to enter the Bay area leading to a final confrontation with a submarine. Stars Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis. The first of the giant octopus movies. Except this one only has seven arms!
When electronics engineer Mitch MacAfee spots a UFO as “big as a battleship,” from his plane, the Air Force scrambles planes to investigate. However, nothing shows up on radar, and one of the jets is lost during the action. MacAfee is regarded as a dangerous crackpot until other incidents and disappearances convince the authorities that the threat is real. Some believe it is a French-Canadian folk legend come to life, but it turns out to be an extraterrestrial giant bird composed of anti-matter whose disregard for human life and architecture threatens the world. Staring Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, and Morris Ankrum. Finally, a 50s sci-fi movie about a giant Thunderbird! Pretty corny with the turkey buzzard Thunderbird, but worth a look since the giant birds are still flying!
When an atomic war on Mars destroys the planet’s women, it’s up to Martian Princess Marcuzan and her right-hand man Dr. Nadir to travel to earth and kidnap women for new breeding stock. Landing in Puerto Rico, they shoot down a NASA space capsule manned by an android. With his electronic brain damaged, the android terrorizes the island while the Martians raid beaches and pool parties. Starring Marilyn Hanold, James Karen and Lou Cutell. Sort of a sequel to Plan 9 From Outer Space, this movie was meant to be a satire but the producers wanted a serious monster movie. Not sure that they got what they wanted.
A South Korean family celebrates the wedding of an astronaut. Then the groom receives a call on his wedding night that he is needed for a reconnaissance flight during which he observes a nuclear test that triggers an earthquake in Korea. Strangely, the quake’s epicenter keeps moving towards Seoul. A photographer who was documenting the moving temblor’s damage notifies authorities that its cause is a gigantic underground creature making its way toward Seoul. Martial law is declared. As the creature, Yongary, emerges, it begins to wreak havoc on the city. Starring Yeong-il Oh, Jeong-im Nam, and Soon-jae Lee. This South Korean version of Godzilla has the monster drinking gasoline to fuel his flame-thrower breath.
An ex-soldier ventures into the Pacific Northwest to uncover the truth behind his fiancés disappearance. Starring Kevin Makely, Todd A. Robinson, Summer Spiro, and Lance Henriksen. Henriksen is back in another bigfoot movie filmed in the Lewis River Falls-Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington State. Shouldn’t go hunting for bigfoot—he doesn’t like it!
A man, crippled in a climbing accident, returns to his cabin in the woods as part of his rehabilitation, but he wasn’t prepared for the immanent onslaught of an Abominable Snowman. Trapped in a remote cabin in the woods, he sees the legendary beast, and must convince someone to believe him, before the monster goes on a bloody rampage. Starring Matt McCoy, Lance Henriksen, Haley Joel and Christien Tinsley. One of the great bigfoot movies of all time.
Professor Groves, an expert in prehistoric life, proves his theories with an extract that’ll regress a cat to a saber-tooth tiger and man to a Neanderthal. Starring Robert Shayne, Joyce Terry, and Richard Crane. It has been speculated that bigfoot and yetis are leftover Neanderthals living on the fringes of society. Best not to drink that saber-toothed tiger juice!
When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter, Tania Frankenstein and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments. The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall’s brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen, in order to prolong the aging Marshall’s life. Meanwhile, the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr. Frankenstein. Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor’s daughter. Starring Joseph Cotton, Rosalba Neri, and Paul Muller. The theatrical version of this spaghetti horror movie contained a bit of R-rated skin. It ends abruptly without any credits. Where is Peter Cushing?
An expedition searching for treasure supposedly buried by the German army in the African desert during WW II comes up against an army of Nazi zombies guarding the fortune. Starring Manuel Gélin, Eduardo Fajardo, and France Lomay. An early Nazi zombie movie made in the Canary Islands and Spain. Long before the current Nazi zombie movie fad.
A mad scientist tries to create a man-eating plant to prove that the origin of the human race comes from the sea. “The earth is your mother, lightning is you father, rain is your blood” says the madman who creates the thing as the Baron Frankenstein, with a Japanese hunchback. Then, a NASA scientist is ordered to take a vacation due to showing signs of stress while working on his latest missile project and stumbles across the mad scientist and his man-eating monster plant. Also known as Venus Flytrap. Starring James Craig, Tota Kondo, and Lawrence O’Neill. Yow, those weird Japanese scientists can cook up some strange Sukiyaki!
An airplane goes down in the ocean during a storm and a few survivors find refuge on a small tour boat. Swept out to sea, these people slowly starve to death in the hot sun with barely any food or clean water. With no place to turn, the boat survivors resort to cannibalism to stay alive… that is until the rescue planes come to pick them up and the man eating sharks decide its time to eat as well. Starring Arthur Kennedy, Carroll Baker, and Lionel Stander. Filmed in the Yucatan and Quintana Roo, this Mexican disaster movie is a classic.
A giant, mutant crocodile is killing and frightening people living near the river. Two men, whose wives and daughter have been killed by the crocodile, decide to chase and eliminate it. Starring Nard Poowanai, Ni Tien, and Angela Wells. Made in Thailand where they have a lot of crocs, this is probably the earliest of all the giant croc movies out these days, such as the Lake Placid movies.
Eight mysterious crystals from the body of a long-dead princess now identify the eight samurai who are destined to help a beautiful young princess overcome a curse on her family. They go against an evil queen who bathes in blood to retain her youthfulness. The queen and her son live in a castle protected by many monsters and goblins and assorted apparitions, including giant flying snakes. Many swords, lots of sorcery and plenty of blood. Starring Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hiroyuki Sanada, Sony Chiba. This is a pretty cool Japanese fantasy adventure that shows how interesting Japanese culture is with its ancient Sci-fi, crystals, mystical warriors and more. A totally cool movie! You gotta love those flying snakes!
A former Hollywood make-up artist who now runs a wax museum after his face is disfigured by a movie mogul seeks revenge on all those he feels have wronged him. He becomes the curator of a wax museum and murders his enemies—turning their bodies as exhibits in his museum. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Anne Helm, and Scott Brady. A nicely subdued performance from Cameron Mitchell in this remake of House of Wax.
In a community near a swamp, a local dweller sees a couple of giant monsters but nobody believes him. Later, the cuckold Dave Walker finds his slut wife Liz Walker cheating on him with his friend Cal Moulton. He chases the couple through the swamp, and forces them to jump into the water. The leeches take them and shocked Dave is arrested and accused of murder. Two other locals decide to look for the bodies of Liz and Cal to get the prize of US $50.00 per body, and also vanish in the swamp. Finally, game warden Steve Benton organizes a patrol to investigate the caves under the swamp, finding the lethal giant leeches. Starring Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, and Jan Shepard. Something of a cult movie, this is all about swamps gone wrong, terribly wrong.
An atomic explosion awakens Gamera–a giant, fire-breathing turtle monster–from his millions of years of hibernation. Enraged at being roused from such a sound sleep, he takes it out on Tokyo. Only Plan Z can stop him. Sounds like the last plan they had. Starring Albert Dekker, Brian Donlevy, and Diane Findlay. A fun Japanese monster movie. It seems that Gamera is more lovable than Godzilla, so take that Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Two Japanese children get into a flying saucer and end up on the other side of the sun where they dream of donuts and milk and a hero turtle. The women there want to eat their brains. Yikes! Originally titled in Japan as Gamera vs Guiron. Starring Christopher Murphy and Edith Hanson. Flying saucers, Gamera and the far side of the Sun, what more could you ask for—Godzilla?
Professor “Johnny Longbow” Salina, a man who really knows his stews, introduces Paul Carlson to the practical-joking Kathy Nolan. Paul and Kathy seem to hit it off rather well but, during a meteor storm, a meteorite fragment strikes Paul, burying itself deep in his skull, which has the unpleasant side-effect of causing Paul to mutate into a giant reptilian monster at night and go on murderous rampages. It turns out that this sort of thing has happened before, when Professor Salina rediscovers ancient Native American paintings detailing a similar event many centuries ago. Kathy, however, still loves Paul, and tries to save him. Starring Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake, and Gregorio Sala. An interesting independent movie made in New Mexico in the mid-70s when you could still do stuff like that. Gotta love movies made in the Land of Enchantment! The Andromeda Strain, look out!
Teenaged Mowgli, who was raised by wolves, appears in a village in India and is adopted by Messua. Mowgli learns human language and some human ways quickly, though keeping jungle ideas. Influential Merchant Buldeo is bigoted against ‘beasts’ including Mowgli; not so Buldeo’s pretty daughter, whom Mowgli takes on a jungle tour where they find a treasure in a lost city, setting the evil of human greed in motion. A great, color movie based on Rudyard Kipling’s book. Starring Sabu, Joseph Calleia, and John Qualen.
