Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #26 (10/28)

[Xenorama]

AKA "he slimed me" or "I collect spores, molds and fungus"
mine isn't exactly kaiju per se, but I hope you enjoy it.

Previous Viewings:
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #1 (5/12-5/13) - Son of Godzilla
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #2 (5/19-5/20) - Gamera vs. Gyaos
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #3 (5/26-5/27) - Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #4 (6/2-6/3) - Mothra
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #5 (6/9-6/10) - King Kong vs Godzilla
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #6 (6/16-6/17) - Varan the Unbelievable
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #7 (6/23-6/24) - The Deadly Mantis
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #8 (6/30-7/1) - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #9 (7/2-7/7) - Mighty Joe Young
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #10 (7/9-7/13) - The Giant Claw
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #11 (7/16-7/20) - The Human Vapor
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #12 (7/23-7/28) - Gorath
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #13 (7/30-8/4) - Secret of the Telegian
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #14 (8/11-8/12)- Godzilla's Revenge
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #15 (8/19) - Alligator
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #16 (8/26) - Gunhed
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #17 (9/2) Godzilla 1985
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #18 (9/8) Godzilla vs. Gigan
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #19 (9/14) Space Amoeba
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #20 (9/21) The Host
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #21 (9/30) Zaat!
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #22 (10/7) The Bermuda Depths
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #23 (10/14) Matango[/b]
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #24 ???
Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Poll #25 Frankie Conquers All

[The Real McCoy]

Interesting. The only one of these I've seen is The Slime People, but all the others are available on Youtube except Space Master X7. Haven't made up my mind yet, but it's an interesting poll.

[MouthForWar]

[klen7]

Since I haven't heard of ANY of these and needed to look them up i figured i would share the imdb synopsis so other people won't need to look them up as well

The Slime People (1963)
After Los Angeles is invaded by an army of subterranean monsters a small group of people must fight for survival in the deserted metropolis.

The Unknown Terror (1957)
A woman leads an expedition into a remote jungle to find her long-lost brother, but instead finds a mad scientist who has created a fungus monster that feeds on the local inhabitants.

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
Archaeologists investigating some Mayan ruins come across a blob-like monster. They manage to destroy it with fire, but keep a sample. Meanwhile, a comet is due to pass close to the Earth - the same comet passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. Coincidence?

First Man into Space (1959)
Navy test pilot Lieut. Dan Prescott, in experimental rocket plane Y-13, disobeys orders and becomes the first man to fly outside the ionosphere. Unable to turn, he ejects...and is plastered with metallic meteor dust. The pilot compartment lands with no trace of the pilot... but first cattle, then people, are found with their throats cut as if with an axe, by something that seems to have a craving for blood...

Space Master X7 (1958)
A space probe returns to Earth covered with a strange fungus. The fungus is accidentally tinged with human blood and is transformed into an ever-growing pile of space rust, dubbed "Blood Rust". It is up to John Hand and Joe Rattigan to find the one woman who can stop the rust from spreading and taking over the world.

[MekaGojira3k]

[H-Man]

[Henry88]

[MekaGojira3k]

[metal_bryan]

[klen7]

It looks like Caltiki is giving the finger to the other entries


I voted for the Unknown Terror, but i agree with Metal_Bryan that I would like to see some of these show up again in a future poll

[jellydonut25]

[Henry88]

a question

did Caltiki win or is this poll still going?

[gila-monster]

A lot of these seem really hard to find, which makes reading their awesome plot synopses all the more painful.

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Alpha OTS]

Watched the youtube copy on my tv. Not too great quality because of the upsizing, but the audio was good.

"And we've never made a mistake in our calculation, its 20 million years old!"

This was a pretty good pick. It's a little more than your typical 50's monster movie. The exposure to the blob driving one of the archeologists into a psychosis which is further complicated with him coveting his friend's wife while spurining a woman who would do and does anything for him is quite a tangled web. The monster's life cycle is pretty interesting too, with the tie in with the fall of Mayan civilization and the returning radioactive comet which promotes the blob's growth.

There's some suprisingly good miniature work here too especially at the end. What really suprised me the most though is how gory this movie is at parts.


The scuba diver's unmasking after his encounter with Caltiki. You can hear him breathing!


This part is particularly gruesome as the doctors remove a part of the blob from the exposed archeologist's arm. We later learn that there's mummification going on with the exposed tissue, which explains his fall into psychosis.

I've not seen many "blob" movies, but this does seem like one of the better ones.

[klen7]

the beginning of the film says that it is based on an ancient Mexican legend. Is there an old legend about a Mayan monster?

[Alpha OTS]

[klen7]

I didn't find anything either, but I recently learned about the from a movie, so I was hopeful to find something new...
I couldn't tell what cosmic monsters were in the drawing, I've seen giant snakes and giant birds before in that style

[metal_bryan]

Like Alpha said, I was pretty surprised by the gore in this movie as well as some of the nice miniature work. I especially liked that scene where they removed the creature from that crazy guy's arm. Of all the creature effects, I think I liked the "splitting" ones the best, where they tried to show the creature growing. They'd pull apart two halves of the material and stringy slime was in-between. Cool effect.

The story itself featured heavily the guy who was exposed and went nutso, along with his triangle of desiring the scientist's wife and the "half-breed" who'd do anything for his love. A lot of the stuff in this movie, especially the gore, was very Italian. You can see where it had some small influence on the later Italian horror/gore scene if not for the lack of nudity. A particular scene early on where they're watching a native girl do a seductive dance comes to mind. The threat of rape from the mummified guy is also within those tropes.

The ending of the movie went a bit bigger than I was expecting and it was a nice payoff. At that point the story didn't make much sense anymore, with the military showing up out of nowhere, but it doesn't matter. The effects were nice and it was a good ending. Definitely one of the better blob movies out there.

[Henry88]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fb2ujWvpBFM/U ... +skull.jpg

[klen7]

Like mentioned previously i was surprised by the level of gore in this film. It was fairly effective even in black and white... well on to my standard response structure

The Good
I really liked this film. A quick glance at imdb says it came the year after the Blob.. so it is interesting to compare the two films.


i think that even if Caltiki did copy elements of the Blob, the 80's remake of The Blob may have borrowed from Caltiki


Even the portions of movie i didn't like as much were well executed and different from what i was used to from films of the era. The climax was pretty exciting as well. I think this movie has aged well.


The Bad
This guys driving!


Seriously though i thought the Mad Max subplot was unnecessary. Not poorly done, just unnecessary.



The Weird
This film features an early "found footage" scene which is recently all the rage


This has probably been my favorite film that i have discovered via the weekly viewing. I would pick this up on DVD. I give this film 5 out 5 happy dances.

[metal_bryan]

Hey, Xeno! Wanna pick somebody to do the next thread?

[Xenorama]

sure, I nomite Klen7!

[Alpha OTS]

I liked the Mad Max subplot. It caused me to picture the Mayans trying to battle Calitki losing even further when some of their best and bravest turn into stark raving lunatics because of mummification introduced into their system through exposure to the blob's skin. Making a losing battle even more tragic when they have to fight the blob and their own new crazies. Kind of added a sorta zombie angle to the story, I thought.