Movie Review: Monster on the Campus (1958)
Synopsis: A newly discovered coelacanth is delivered to a college campus for study. However, because the fish has been exposed to radiation, it has the ability to devolve anything that comes in contact with its blood.
Who's in it? The film stars Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Nancy Walters, Phil Harvey and Troy Donahue.
Review: I remember watching Monster on the Campus with my oldest daughter several years ago but the only thing I could remember about it was not thinking it was very good, even by 1950s monster movie standards. Since I have had a history of re-watching movies and enjoying them more the second time around, I decided to give it another change.
Unfortunately, my opinion about the movie remains the same.
More times than not, my dislike for a movie is the result of wasted potential - a film that has a promising plot but suffers from poor acting, crappy special effects or just poor overall execution. In a lot of ways, this film is the opposite of that. The acting isn't terrible. The special effects were within the expectations of the time period and the execution was fine. The overall premise is the main issue because it's just too limiting.
To elaborate, if the characters devolved from simple contact with the cursed fish, it might have been an OK movie. Instead, the devolving required the deceased fish's blood to enter their bodies. Some of the ways this happened were OK, such as an accidental scratch from the coelacanth's tooth (though I'm still confused why an educated man would then wash his injured hand in bloody water rather than the sink). Other, like the scene with the dragonfly, were just dumb, to the point it was hard to take the movie seriously.
The limitations also meant the movie was very predictable. It's possible I remembered some of the scenes from when I saw it the first time but, even if I hadn't, I'm pretty sure I could have told you how it was going to end long before I reached that part of the film. In other words, it was a movie that was in desperate need of some sort of surprise twist and that didn't happen.
Final Opinion: As I said, the acting surprisingly isn't that bad. Too bad the movie's limiting premise prevents it from making a difference.
My Grade: D
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Here are some reviews of other 1950s monster movies:
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