Night of the Blood Beast (1958) / Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) Film Masters Blu-ray Review

Verdict

Summary

Film Masters recently released a double Blu-ray (two discs) feature of these two Corman titles, and both have been upgraded in newly restored 4K scans, making these movies look and sound better than they ever have before. There’s also a thick booklet that comes with the pair of discs, and a bunch of bonus features to go with it all. Set this one on your wish list to watch for Halloween.

Night of the Blood Beast (1958) Plot:

An astronaut returns to earth after a space mission … but he’s become the incubator of an alien creature.

Review:

A mission to space turns tragic when the sole astronaut aboard a rocket is killed in making his return trip home to earth. As his cold corpse lies in the morgue for an autopsy, it is quickly determined that a strange wound on his arm might have been an entry point for an alien organism. And it is so: When he was in space, the astronaut was “invaded” by a sentient alien creature, and before anyone can keep up with events, a doctor in the morgue is killed, and then the truth bomb hits: The astronaut brought with him embryos from space and they were in his body! With a very quickly mutating and growing alien creature running amok in the valley outside the base where the doctors and scientists are working, no one is safe from the “Blood Beast” from outer space! But what’s more is that it has a mission to destroy earth and has a message to tell … but will anyone live to hear it?

A little more sophisticated than the average drive-in “atomic age” creature feature, Night of the Blood Beast from producer Roger Corman and director Bernard L. Kowalsi basically boils down to a stuntman running around in a monster suit with a big, clunky paper mache helmet, grabbing girls and scientists and throwing them into the scrub brush. Does it hold up? Well, no, but the plot would be imitated on into infinity afterwards, still being done with variations to this day. The 2017 movie Life with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds comes to mind, for example. If you’re the type to watch black and white science fiction monster movies for the Halloween season instead of horror movies, then this one might tickle your fancy.

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) Plot:

Giant leech creatures infest a swamp, causing casualties.

Review:

Overweight and unappealing to everyone around him, Dave Walker (Bruno VeSota) has got good reason to hate his life and everything else too. His hot blonde wife Liz (Yvette Vickers) openly cheats on him and despises his guts, and when he’s pushed too far to care anymore, Dave tries to teach his wife and her lover a lesson by forcing them to take a cold bath in the local swamp, not realizing that he’s condemned them to death. Giant leech monsters the size of octopuses are sucking the blood out of anyone in the area brave enough to invade their territory! When the cops arrest poor Dave for murder, he confesses that he never intended to kill them, and as God is his witness, he swears that there are monsters in thar them waters! Leave it to the local game warden Steve (Ken Clark with one seriously hairy chest), a lothario and stud in his own right, to investigate! Steve soon finds out that indeed there are giant leech things (clearly guys in monster suits trying to stay afloat in the lake) killing the locals, and his plan is pretty simple: Some explosives to blow the bloody things apart! End credits!

At an hour long, Attack of the Giant Leeches might be a late ’50s creature feature from Roger Corman, but it’s got a sleaze factor that cannot be ignored. That’s why I liked it, quite frankly. The characters are morally reprehensible sleazoids, and it’s got a knowing sexy quality that must’ve raised a few eyebrows in the drive-in circuit when it was first released. Yvette Vickers is despicable, but she’s gosh darn smokin’ hot, so help me! The movie has a sweaty palms, Everglades factor working in its favor, and while the appearance of the monsters is goofy, I didn’t care. This was fun! From director Bernard L. Kowalski.

Bonus Materials