Director: Del Tenney
Year: 1964
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
After a series of strange teen disappearances, the locals in a small seaside town find the area to be infested with sea-born monsters created by radioactivity from spilled nuclear dumping in the ocean and track them down before they kill the entire population.
Review:
Overall, this was a deliciously cheesy and enjoyable monster effort. A great deal of fun comes from the film's determined, single-minded nature that really has no other function than being exactly that. For the most this is due to the film's focus on the teens in the story, from the ludicrously and grossly over-featured teen- dance-party on the beach, with all the unnecessary drama associated with such fare especially back in the 50s and 60s, including the extended focus on lame music and rituals that are just unbelievably bad and cheesy to their enhanced screen-presence that plays right into their hands as the leads and the rather heavy presence of these tropes coming together into being a monster film just sells this as a silly cheesefest.
Then we get to the monsters, which are some of the goofiest-looking creations ever in their designs, which just adds to the cheesy atmosphere even more, and is a ton of fun for the film whenever they're on-screen, and they're given quite a lot here, which is quite surprising. Not only is there the creation sequence in all its glory, showing the creatures getting mutated and changed into their final form, but the scenes of them peering behind walls or approaching off in the distance, which keeps them as a somewhat focal point, so they have a lot of time on-screen, which makes them look all the better.
Even better though is the fact that, despite being so cheesy it has an air of suspense and action throughout, with a lot of attacks and these aren't that bad from the first appearance on the shoreline, sneaking up on the unsuspecting victim, a stellar attack on a group of girls having a sleepover and more stalking scenes of the forests surrounding the town, picking off unsuspecting travelers. Far better, though, is their attack on the town, which is the best scene here and gets some solid action and exciting moments in their attacks on the side streets, the doctor's office, and in the various stores in the town, which is rather fun.
These make this one quite fun and much more enjoyable than expected, though it's still somewhat flawed. The biggest issue with this one is undoubtedly the teen-centered nature of this, which is so over-the-top here with its banal romance and party-filled atmosphere that it sometimes becomes hard to get through it with such a small focus on interesting elements, with this one not really allowing for much to really matter here. The dancing, the lousy musical numbers piped into the film regularly, and the angst-filled melodrama make for some rather troubling areas and aren't all that enjoyable. Likewise, there's also the cheesy creatures to contend with, for as good as their design is, there's plenty of goofiness in their suit construction, and often they resemble that entirely, which makes for some laughable main creatures. Still, this was far better than expected and immensely enjoyable.
Overview: ***.5/5
Goofy and rather fun creature feature, this is a perfectly cheesy drive-in style genre effort that really only comes down through outside factors for some that might not even be that impactful. Give it a shot if you're a fan of this kind of genre fare, or those who don't mind the issues here will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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