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Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Sketched lucidly as noir chamber piece and Old Testament parable

Jan 8, 2011

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jul 2, 2005

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Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Entertaining cheesy nonsense from the early days of Roger Corman.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 19, 2004

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Michael Szymanski

Zap2it.com

fun schlock!

Rated: 4/5

Mar 21, 2003

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William L

I saw this movie when it first came out. I was a little kid in the backseat of my mom and dad‘s 1948 Oldsmobile at a drive in. from what I could see, It was pretty frightening. I've never forgotten it because it was the first movie I can remember. It's still pretty good.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/20/24

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Audience Member

One of the better anti-Cold War flicks of the 50s, with some added soap-opera-type side drama to fill the void. The movie does not attempt to fill the screen with wide technicolor visuals like 'This Island Earth' (1958) or 'World of the Wars' (1954). It's satisfied with presenting a possible utter dreadfulness of a post-apocalyptic future. The fact that the characters could convince the viewer that civilization has been flushed down the toilet (which in itself is difficult to conceive)-- from a small remote valley where only disturbing hints of the devastation is seen-- was quite a task, and it worked. The destruction of all we know is left to the imagination --which could provide an even worse scenario. Unlike most contemporary schlock of the era, the characters were taut and serious and therefore believable. Few science-fiction yarns ever reached this level of seriousness, with 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' or 'When Worlds Collide' being examples of pure serious adult-level syfy. It's interesting how they explained the monster in the film, as he seems misplaced and added as an extra horror gimmick. And how does he happen to have mental telepathic powers? Jim, the seemingly cold-hearted landlord, spoke of a son who was lost. For a time, Jim's daughter Louise was the only person who could hear the monster calling her. Recall the drawings of the horribly disfigured creatures Jim hesitantly presented to Rick; one was a monkey with three eyes, four arms, and unnaturally hardened skin. This was a hint of the missing son's new appearance, Apparently, realizing his horrific appearance, the son remained in the shadows attempting to communicate telepathically with his sister. The brother-sister bond was quite strong. We have to believe that his severe exposure to intense fallout had increased his mental capabilities, also. The script, quite happy to play on our fears of radically altered human physiology in a nightmarish nuclear aftermath, was clever enough not give you the true identity of the creature. This, alone, gives it three stars.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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deke p

RICHARD DENNING handsome as ever. But the PLOT was laborious and boring. The Monster costume was ridiculable. MIKE ('TOUCH') CONNORS (MANNIX) was the bad guy. Would not recommend this, except that it was ROGER CORMAN. TV guide sd it was a flesheating zombie movie, but not much.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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martin a

An interesting film that tells the tale of a group of people trapped inside a house that is shielded by hills during a nuclear fallout. The humans caught in the last turn to flesh-eating monsters and the residents who are squabbling between themselves and dwindling food supplies also have to fight off the mutants

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

I thought it was way better than a 42% audience rating, yet at the same time i can't dispute that was what it received from the audience that viewed it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

Movies about disease, war, and nuclear fallout destroying the world is and then having to survive in the aftermath is nothing new. This is one of the first of its kind to my mind, and while interesting, time has brought us much more memorable of the types of films to make this one more or less forgettable. Still worth a watch if you love classic scifi and have a love of these kind of movies.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Roger Corman

Director

Richard Denning

Rick

Lori Nelson

Louise Maddison

Adele Jergens

Ruby

Mike Connors

Tony Lamont

Paul Birch

Jim Maddison

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Synopsis

In a world devastated by a wide-scale nuclear war, all that remains are teetering ruins and a handful of scrappy survivors. The group includes a weathered rancher (Paul Birch), his lovely daughter (Lori Nelson), a tough gangster (Touch Connors), his mouthy woman (Adele Jergens) and a shaken geologist (Richard Denning). This motley crew faces internal and external conflicts as they traverse the treacherous land. Along the way, they are forced to confront a mutated human monster (Paul Blaisdell).

Director: Roger Corman
Producer: Alex Gordon
Screenwriter: Lou Rusoff
Production Co: Golden State Productions, Selma Enterprises
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 4, 1956, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 2, 2019
Runtime: 1h 20m

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