Verdict
Summary
The plot is silly, and the acting is deadly serious, but this is the sort of movie I can easily watch half asleep and still sort of enjoy.
Plot:
Radiation causes mutations on wasps that are terrorizing Africa.
Review:
Some wasps are launched into space on nuclear rockets, which then crash down somewhere in the “Green Hell” of Africa. The wasps survive and mutate into massive monstrous behemoths that proceed to lay waste to entire tribes and species, which could potentially eventually wipe out the entire continent. The original scientist who is to blame leads a safari in Africa to get to the bottom of the mess he created, and the quest he undertakes is fraught with danger, as the monsters (which are strangely grounded, never seen in the air) eliminate the team one by one. Eventually, the safari’s efforts are deemed useless as nature itself proves to be the ultimate weapon against the giant wasps, as a volcano erupts and puts an end to the mutated monsters.
Framed around footage from other movies involving scores of native African extras running every which way, the very low budget Monster From Hell feels like a very old issue of National Geographic, but with some glimpses of giant monsters thrown in every once in awhile. The best scene has a wasp killing a huge snake (it’s all stop motion, I think), but it’s over so quickly. The plot is silly, and the acting is deadly serious, but this is the sort of movie I can easily watch half asleep and still sort of enjoy. The climax is in color, while the first hour is in black and white, which reminds me of the time I went to see Superman Returns opening day in IMAX 3D, but only a few moments of the film were actually in 3D; a little symbol of glasses would appear at the corner of the screen, indicating when you could put your 3D glasses on – annoying, and thankfully a process that future blockbusters abandoned. Kenneth G. Crane directed this one.
The Film Detective recently released a Blu-ray of Monster From Green Hell, and the film looks really sharp in widescreen high defintion, and the disc comes with an audio commentary, a retrospective of actor Jim Davis, who stars in the movie, and an insert booklet with an essay on the film.
