WEBVTT
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Welcome back, listeners, to the introverted obelisk.
00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:35.840
I'm your host, Obi Knox.
00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:40.960
Well, we're further into August, but the heat and the bugs haven't started to calm down yet.
00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:48.320
In fact, someone has nailed a notice to the bulletin board outside the studio, and it simply says, Do not approach the hive.
00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.679
No location, no explanation, just don't approach it.
00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:58.320
And I've decided that if whoever wrote the sign wasn't concerned enough to tell me where it is, I'm not going looking for it.
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:02.719
Instead, let's spend the evening with a much more manageable insect problem.
00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:08.560
Tonight, we're talking about The Black Scorpion from 1957.
00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:27.200
A movie built around one comforting idea that deep underneath civilization, beneath the roads, the villages, the churches, and the power lines, prehistoric nightmares have apparently been waiting patiently for millions of years for a volcano accidentally opened the door.
00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:31.920
And honestly, that feels exactly like the sort of thing the fifties would be terrified of.
00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:41.120
I mean, because let's face it, the fifties absolutely loved the idea that, you know, humanity was one bad scientific decision away from waking something enormous and angry.
00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:50.239
And every other movie from the era seemed to convince the Earth was basically a giant locked basement full of prehistoric nightmares, waiting for the wrong person to jiggle the handle.
00:01:50.400 --> 00:02:05.599
And then along comes the black scorpion, which takes all of that fear and gives it claws, venom, giant pincers, and enough legs to make checking your boots before putting them on feel like a survival instinct instead of a, you know, a personality corp.
00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:16.000
Well, our movie opens after a massive volcanic eruption and earthquakes tear through the Mexican countryside, leaving villages damaged and entire regions thrown into panic.
00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:24.879
Well, geologist Arturo Remos and American scientist Henry Hank Scott head into the affected areas to investigate.
00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:42.159
And the movie wastes absolutely no time establishing that something deeply wrong is happening because along the road they discover an abandoned gas station, a neglected infant, and the body of a dead policeman whose face looks like he spent his final moments realizing the universe has made a terrible mistake.
00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:52.240
We find the officer's revolver has been absolutely emptied, along with his body of all of his blood, and then the weird thing is there's not a drop of blood anywhere near him.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.680
Which this feels like the sort of clue that most rational people would immediately interpret as run.
00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:04.639
Instead, because this is, again, a 50s creature feature, everybody instead just keeps investigating.
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:18.159
Well, Hank and Arturo eventually arrive in the village of San Lorenzo, where terrified locals are already whispering about disappearances, mutilated cattle, and something they call the Demon Bull.
00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:26.879
Which sounds fake until you remember these people live next to an active volcano that is apparently vomiting prehistoric nightmares into their countryside.
00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:35.039
Well, the village priest, Father Delgado, he tries to comfort the townspeople, meanwhile, soldiers arrive to investigate the growing number of deaths.
00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.680
And let me just tell you, the movie does something smart here by treating the fear seriously.
00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:44.000
Because nobody behaves like they know they're inside the giant scorpion movie.
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:56.479
You know, the villagers feel genuinely frightened, the military feels genuinely overwhelmed, and the scientists feel like people trying to desperately explain something that is pretty much impossible, and do so before it reaches the city.
00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:57.360
And I don't know.
00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:03.439
I I just feel like that sincerity helps the movie enormously because eventually, you know, the impossible does show up.
00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:12.639
Well, while exploring near the volcano, Arturo discovers a piece of obsidian containing a perfectly preserved scorpion trapped inside the rock.
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:21.360
Which is already unsettling enough before the movie then decides to dramatically escalate things by having giant scorpions begin murdering telephone linemen.
00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:28.319
And honestly, I gotta say that is one of the most wonderfully specific 50s monsters movie victims imaginable.
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:52.079
Like, the attack itself works surprisingly kinda well because the creatures emerge slowly out of the darkness with these enormous claws and like whipping tails while the linemen scream into the telephone receiver, creating this horrifying realization that somewhere in this movie giant scorpions have apparently declared war on public utilities.
00:04:52.319 --> 00:05:03.600
So, back to Hank and Arturo, they investigate and finally encounter the creatures directly, only to discover bullets accomplish basically nothing except, you know, making them more mad.
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:27.279
Now the creatures themselves, I gotta say, are magnificent in that very specific stop-motion way, you know, where your brain fully understands that you're looking at a miniature model that's being animated frame by frame, but yet there's still that, I guess, almost reptilian part of your brain that immediately decides that that distinction does not matter because these things look horrifying when they're moving.
00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:34.560
And the scorpions themselves were actually created under the supervision of legendary effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.
00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:46.319
Same guy who's responsible for giving us King Kong back in 33, while much of the animation work itself was handled by animator Pete Peterson due to O'Brien's declining health at the time.
00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:59.759
And honestly, I'm I'm just telling you folks, like the effects still hold up remarkably well because the creatures move with this like, I don't know, like deliberate predatory fluidity that makes them feel genuinely alive.
00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.319
And like they don't stomp around like dinosaurs.
00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.000
Like they skitter.
00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:06.560
Which to me is absolutely worse.
00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:18.720
And their tails, they twitch constantly, their claws snap impatiently, and every movement feels just slightly unnatural, you know, in exactly the way nightmares tend to feel.
00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:29.439
Even the sound design helps because the screeching noises the scorpions make are actually recycled from the giant ant turps from them from back in 54.
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:40.720
Which means somewhere in you know 50s science fiction history, there was an audio engineer, apparently, who discovered the universal sound of oversized insect nightmare approaching.
00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.720
And Hollywood just kept using it.
00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:44.079
And I love that fact.
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:45.360
Like that makes me so happy.
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:58.720
So anyway, the production itself was almost as scrappy as the monsters, because O'Brien and Peterson originally began filming the effect sequences inside a remodeled dressing room at Topeya Studios in Mexico City.
00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:08.720
But when the money started running out, they ended up having to finish large portions of the stop motion work inside Peterson's garage in Encino, California.
00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:14.879
Which, let's be honest, that feels completely appropriate for, you know, a 50s creature cinema.
00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:16.240
Like, let's just let's face it.
00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:28.160
Because like half of these movies feel like they were built by exhausted geniuses surviving on coffee, cigarettes, and you know, the terrifying belief that they could somehow make giant monsters believable with fish and wire and determination.
00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:28.959
And they did.
00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:31.439
Like, that's that's that's probably the best part, they did.
00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:34.319
Alright, so meanwhile, back in the story, Dr.
00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:45.439
Velasco arrives from Mexico City and determines that the scorpions are actually prehistoric survivors, forced to the surface by volcanic activities deep underground.
00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:55.519
Which means this movie is essentially built around the horrifying realization that the earth beneath civilization is apparently full of giant venomous relics from another age.
00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:57.279
Yeah, that's not unsettling at all.
00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:03.279
Well, the military eventually discovers, you know, the massive underground chasm believed to be the creature's nesting ground.
00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:09.279
And this is where the movie suddenly becomes completely unhinged in the best way possible.
00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:16.879
Because Hank and Arturo descend into the cavern system, and they do so only to discover an entire subterranean ecosystem.
00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:22.480
Built of course with giant scorpions, and wait for it, a 30-foot worm.
00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.519
Yes, a giant worm.
00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:35.440
Because apparently, once this movie realized, you know, it already had oversight's prehistoric scorpions roaming around underground, it basically said moderation is not necessary anymore.
00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:37.039
Like we're throwing that out the window.
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:43.279
And what follows is probably one of the great, forgotten monster fights of the 50s.
00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:49.360
As the scorpions and the worm tear into each other inside this underground nightmare.
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:58.639
And all the while, Hank and Arturo are just standing nearby realizing they've accidentally wandered into the worst nature documentary ever made.
00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:03.600
And yet, somehow, the movie still is not done escalating.
00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:12.000
Because Juanito, Teresa Elvarez's young son, secretly decided to stow away in the cage, lowering the scientist into the cavern.
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:21.600
Which means this kid accidentally spends part of the movie trapped underground with giant prehistoric scorpions fighting monsters all around.
00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:25.440
I feel like it's safe to say this kid's gonna need therapy for like the rest of his life.
00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.960
Like, dude's gonna be in there at like age 85, still talking about giant scorpions.
00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:31.840
Whew.
00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:36.960
Alright, well, the cave sequence is probably the highlight of the whole film.
00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:38.080
Let's just be honest.
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:46.320
Because, on the one hand, it taps directly into like the primal fear, you know, like darkness, isolation, ancient predators.
00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:51.840
You know, it feels like humanity has stumbled somewhere where into where it actually doesn't belong.
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.720
And then on the other hand, it actually stops feeling like a giant bug movie for a while.
00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:00.720
And starts feeling like somebody opened a crack into like another world.
00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:04.080
And the movie even sneaks in a wonderful piece of monster movie history.
00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:18.080
Because the trapdoor spider that attacks Juanito inside the cave was actually one of the original spider models created for the famous deleted spider pit sequence from King Kong back in 33.
00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:28.879
Which means this film literally drags one of the classic horror cinemas Lost Nightmares back onto the screen 24 years later, and then throws it directly at a child.
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Which, I don't know, honestly feels both like historically significant and deeply rude.
00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:39.279
Well, eventually the military dynamites the cave and you know believes problem solved.
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.000
And of course, it's not.
00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:52.799
Because then several scorpions survive and start moving toward Mexico City, which leads to one of the most wonderfully inevitable escalations in 50s science fiction.
00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.720
Once giant monsters exist, eventually they have to attack a populated area.
00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:59.279
Like I feel like that's just that's just the rule.
00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:03.120
Like that is creature feature law 101.
00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:10.799
So along the way, the creatures attack a train in a sequence that I I ain't gonna lie, like it looks remarkably good.
00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:17.200
Because the stop animation gives the Scorpions this horrible, like, physical, I don't know, weight.
00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:28.639
Like, they don't just like, you know, poke against the train cars, like they tear into them like, you know, the train car is made out of like aluminum foil and they're made out of steel.
00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:35.679
And then you get like, you know, passengers panicking and fleeing, and then in this is the part where I feel like this is really weird.
00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:38.320
From a production standpoint, this makes sense.
00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:45.919
All the scorpions then start like attacking each other in like a blood frenzy until like only one remains.
00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:55.679
And I guess what I'm trying to say is like it feels less like animal behavior and more like, you know, the production deciding that there can only be like one boss battle left.
00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:18.240
So by the time the surviving creature reaches Mexico City, martial law has been declared, and the military prepares for you know their big final confrontation inside a stadium, where they got armored vehicles, artillery, and experimental electrical weapons, and they're all positioned around the arena like humanity has collectively decided to settle this problem using violence and engineering at the same time.
00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:27.360
Which again, historically speaking, is very on brand for the 50s because you know gunfire, fire, radiation, dynamite, or electricity is always the answer.
00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:35.120
Well, the finale becomes a desperate attempt to electrocute the creature using a giant harpoon attached to electrical cables.
00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:45.039
And get this, the first attempt goes, of course, disastrously wrong, but it also gets a soldier kill, which just again feels kind of rude and unnecessary.
00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:49.679
Well, our boy Hank eventually lands the shock directly into the creature.
00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:56.639
We get the scorpion convulsing, electricity surges through its body, and you know, the creature finally collapses dead inside the stadium.
00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:05.360
Meanwhile, humanity celebrates surviving yet, you know, another disaster it probably accidentally caused, and could have been avoided.
00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:20.720
So the film was directed by Edward Ludwig and released by Allied artists in 1957 during the absolute height of the creature feature era, when audiences could apparently not get enough of the movies about, you know, humanity being punished by oversized animals.
00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:35.200
And despite the modest budget, the film became a solid hit largely because the stop-motion work gave it an atmosphere and a visual style that I feel like it kind of separated it from like some of the cheaper giant monster imitators, because there were plenty.
00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:46.799
The cast includes Richard Denning as Hank Scott, and Mara Corday as Teresa Alvarez, and fun fact, Corday had appeared in Tarantula just two years earlier.
00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:58.320
Which means there was apparently a period in Hollywood history where Mara Corday was contractually obligated to spend her time fleeing oversized nightmare creatures across desert landscapes.
00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.039
And I ain't gonna lie, I respect the consistency.
00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:02.799
Alright, folks, until next time.
00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:11.840
Let's keep your feet on solid ground, keep your eyes away from cave entrances, and if somebody invites you into a volcanic crater in a 1950s horror movie, you know what?
00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:13.120
Go for it.
00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:16.240
Good night, and roll credits.
00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:34.079
Welcome back, listeners, to the introverted obelisk.
00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:35.840
I'm your host, Obi Knox.
00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:40.960
Well, we're further into August, but the heat and the bugs haven't started to calm down yet.
00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:48.320
In fact, someone has nailed a notice to the bulletin board outside the studio, and it simply says, Do not approach the hive.
00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.679
No location, no explanation, just don't approach it.
00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:58.320
And I've decided that if whoever wrote the sign wasn't concerned enough to tell me where it is, I'm not going looking for it.
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:02.719
Instead, let's spend the evening with a much more manageable insect problem.
00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:08.560
Tonight, we're talking about The Black Scorpion from 1957.
00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:27.200
A movie built around one comforting idea that deep underneath civilization, beneath the roads, the villages, the churches, and the power lines, prehistoric nightmares have apparently been waiting patiently for millions of years for a volcano accidentally opened the door.
00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:31.920
And honestly, that feels exactly like the sort of thing the fifties would be terrified of.
00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:41.120
I mean, because let's face it, the fifties absolutely loved the idea that, you know, humanity was one bad scientific decision away from waking something enormous and angry.
00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:50.239
And every other movie from the era seemed to convince the Earth was basically a giant locked basement full of prehistoric nightmares, waiting for the wrong person to jiggle the handle.
00:01:50.400 --> 00:02:05.599
And then along comes the black scorpion, which takes all of that fear and gives it claws, venom, giant pincers, and enough legs to make checking your boots before putting them on feel like a survival instinct instead of a, you know, a personality corp.
00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:16.000
Well, our movie opens after a massive volcanic eruption and earthquakes tear through the Mexican countryside, leaving villages damaged and entire regions thrown into panic.
00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:24.879
Well, geologist Arturo Remos and American scientist Henry Hank Scott head into the affected areas to investigate.
00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:42.159
And the movie wastes absolutely no time establishing that something deeply wrong is happening because along the road they discover an abandoned gas station, a neglected infant, and the body of a dead policeman whose face looks like he spent his final moments realizing the universe has made a terrible mistake.
00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:52.240
We find the officer's revolver has been absolutely emptied, along with his body of all of his blood, and then the weird thing is there's not a drop of blood anywhere near him.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.680
Which this feels like the sort of clue that most rational people would immediately interpret as run.
00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:04.639
Instead, because this is, again, a 50s creature feature, everybody instead just keeps investigating.
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:18.159
Well, Hank and Arturo eventually arrive in the village of San Lorenzo, where terrified locals are already whispering about disappearances, mutilated cattle, and something they call the Demon Bull.
00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:26.879
Which sounds fake until you remember these people live next to an active volcano that is apparently vomiting prehistoric nightmares into their countryside.
00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:35.039
Well, the village priest, Father Delgado, he tries to comfort the townspeople, meanwhile, soldiers arrive to investigate the growing number of deaths.
00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.680
And let me just tell you, the movie does something smart here by treating the fear seriously.
00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:44.000
Because nobody behaves like they know they're inside the giant scorpion movie.
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:56.479
You know, the villagers feel genuinely frightened, the military feels genuinely overwhelmed, and the scientists feel like people trying to desperately explain something that is pretty much impossible, and do so before it reaches the city.
00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:57.360
And I don't know.
00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:03.439
I I just feel like that sincerity helps the movie enormously because eventually, you know, the impossible does show up.
00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:12.639
Well, while exploring near the volcano, Arturo discovers a piece of obsidian containing a perfectly preserved scorpion trapped inside the rock.
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:21.360
Which is already unsettling enough before the movie then decides to dramatically escalate things by having giant scorpions begin murdering telephone linemen.
00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:28.319
And honestly, I gotta say that is one of the most wonderfully specific 50s monsters movie victims imaginable.
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:52.079
Like, the attack itself works surprisingly kinda well because the creatures emerge slowly out of the darkness with these enormous claws and like whipping tails while the linemen scream into the telephone receiver, creating this horrifying realization that somewhere in this movie giant scorpions have apparently declared war on public utilities.
00:04:52.319 --> 00:05:03.600
So, back to Hank and Arturo, they investigate and finally encounter the creatures directly, only to discover bullets accomplish basically nothing except, you know, making them more mad.
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:27.279
Now the creatures themselves, I gotta say, are magnificent in that very specific stop-motion way, you know, where your brain fully understands that you're looking at a miniature model that's being animated frame by frame, but yet there's still that, I guess, almost reptilian part of your brain that immediately decides that that distinction does not matter because these things look horrifying when they're moving.
00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:34.560
And the scorpions themselves were actually created under the supervision of legendary effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.
00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:46.319
Same guy who's responsible for giving us King Kong back in 33, while much of the animation work itself was handled by animator Pete Peterson due to O'Brien's declining health at the time.
00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:59.759
And honestly, I'm I'm just telling you folks, like the effects still hold up remarkably well because the creatures move with this like, I don't know, like deliberate predatory fluidity that makes them feel genuinely alive.
00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.319
And like they don't stomp around like dinosaurs.
00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.000
Like they skitter.
00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:06.560
Which to me is absolutely worse.
00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:18.720
And their tails, they twitch constantly, their claws snap impatiently, and every movement feels just slightly unnatural, you know, in exactly the way nightmares tend to feel.
00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:29.439
Even the sound design helps because the screeching noises the scorpions make are actually recycled from the giant ant turps from them from back in 54.
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:40.720
Which means somewhere in you know 50s science fiction history, there was an audio engineer, apparently, who discovered the universal sound of oversized insect nightmare approaching.
00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.720
And Hollywood just kept using it.
00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:44.079
And I love that fact.
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:45.360
Like that makes me so happy.
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:58.720
So anyway, the production itself was almost as scrappy as the monsters, because O'Brien and Peterson originally began filming the effect sequences inside a remodeled dressing room at Topeya Studios in Mexico City.
00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:08.720
But when the money started running out, they ended up having to finish large portions of the stop motion work inside Peterson's garage in Encino, California.
00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:14.879
Which, let's be honest, that feels completely appropriate for, you know, a 50s creature cinema.
00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:16.240
Like, let's just let's face it.
00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:28.160
Because like half of these movies feel like they were built by exhausted geniuses surviving on coffee, cigarettes, and you know, the terrifying belief that they could somehow make giant monsters believable with fish and wire and determination.
00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:28.959
And they did.
00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:31.439
Like, that's that's that's probably the best part, they did.
00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:34.319
Alright, so meanwhile, back in the story, Dr.
00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:45.439
Velasco arrives from Mexico City and determines that the scorpions are actually prehistoric survivors, forced to the surface by volcanic activities deep underground.
00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:55.519
Which means this movie is essentially built around the horrifying realization that the earth beneath civilization is apparently full of giant venomous relics from another age.
00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:57.279
Yeah, that's not unsettling at all.
00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:03.279
Well, the military eventually discovers, you know, the massive underground chasm believed to be the creature's nesting ground.
00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:09.279
And this is where the movie suddenly becomes completely unhinged in the best way possible.
00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:16.879
Because Hank and Arturo descend into the cavern system, and they do so only to discover an entire subterranean ecosystem.
00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:22.480
Built of course with giant scorpions, and wait for it, a 30-foot worm.
00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.519
Yes, a giant worm.
00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:35.440
Because apparently, once this movie realized, you know, it already had oversight's prehistoric scorpions roaming around underground, it basically said moderation is not necessary anymore.
00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:37.039
Like we're throwing that out the window.
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:43.279
And what follows is probably one of the great, forgotten monster fights of the 50s.
00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:49.360
As the scorpions and the worm tear into each other inside this underground nightmare.
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:58.639
And all the while, Hank and Arturo are just standing nearby realizing they've accidentally wandered into the worst nature documentary ever made.
00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:03.600
And yet, somehow, the movie still is not done escalating.
00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:12.000
Because Juanito, Teresa Elvarez's young son, secretly decided to stow away in the cage, lowering the scientist into the cavern.
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:21.600
Which means this kid accidentally spends part of the movie trapped underground with giant prehistoric scorpions fighting monsters all around.
00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:25.440
I feel like it's safe to say this kid's gonna need therapy for like the rest of his life.
00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.960
Like, dude's gonna be in there at like age 85, still talking about giant scorpions.
00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:31.840
Whew.
00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:36.960
Alright, well, the cave sequence is probably the highlight of the whole film.
00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:38.080
Let's just be honest.
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:46.320
Because, on the one hand, it taps directly into like the primal fear, you know, like darkness, isolation, ancient predators.
00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:51.840
You know, it feels like humanity has stumbled somewhere where into where it actually doesn't belong.
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And then on the other hand, it actually stops feeling like a giant bug movie for a while.
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And starts feeling like somebody opened a crack into like another world.
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And the movie even sneaks in a wonderful piece of monster movie history.
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Because the trapdoor spider that attacks Juanito inside the cave was actually one of the original spider models created for the famous deleted spider pit sequence from King Kong back in 33.
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Which means this film literally drags one of the classic horror cinemas Lost Nightmares back onto the screen 24 years later, and then throws it directly at a child.
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Which, I don't know, honestly feels both like historically significant and deeply rude.
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Well, eventually the military dynamites the cave and you know believes problem solved.
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And of course, it's not.
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Because then several scorpions survive and start moving toward Mexico City, which leads to one of the most wonderfully inevitable escalations in 50s science fiction.
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Once giant monsters exist, eventually they have to attack a populated area.
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Like I feel like that's just that's just the rule.
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Like that is creature feature law 101.
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So along the way, the creatures attack a train in a sequence that I I ain't gonna lie, like it looks remarkably good.
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Because the stop animation gives the Scorpions this horrible, like, physical, I don't know, weight.
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Like, they don't just like, you know, poke against the train cars, like they tear into them like, you know, the train car is made out of like aluminum foil and they're made out of steel.
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And then you get like, you know, passengers panicking and fleeing, and then in this is the part where I feel like this is really weird.
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From a production standpoint, this makes sense.
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All the scorpions then start like attacking each other in like a blood frenzy until like only one remains.
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And I guess what I'm trying to say is like it feels less like animal behavior and more like, you know, the production deciding that there can only be like one boss battle left.
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So by the time the surviving creature reaches Mexico City, martial law has been declared, and the military prepares for you know their big final confrontation inside a stadium, where they got armored vehicles, artillery, and experimental electrical weapons, and they're all positioned around the arena like humanity has collectively decided to settle this problem using violence and engineering at the same time.
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Which again, historically speaking, is very on brand for the 50s because you know gunfire, fire, radiation, dynamite, or electricity is always the answer.
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Well, the finale becomes a desperate attempt to electrocute the creature using a giant harpoon attached to electrical cables.
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And get this, the first attempt goes, of course, disastrously wrong, but it also gets a soldier kill, which just again feels kind of rude and unnecessary.
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Well, our boy Hank eventually lands the shock directly into the creature.
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We get the scorpion convulsing, electricity surges through its body, and you know, the creature finally collapses dead inside the stadium.
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Meanwhile, humanity celebrates surviving yet, you know, another disaster it probably accidentally caused, and could have been avoided.
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So the film was directed by Edward Ludwig and released by Allied artists in 1957 during the absolute height of the creature feature era, when audiences could apparently not get enough of the movies about, you know, humanity being punished by oversized animals.
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And despite the modest budget, the film became a solid hit largely because the stop-motion work gave it an atmosphere and a visual style that I feel like it kind of separated it from like some of the cheaper giant monster imitators, because there were plenty.
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The cast includes Richard Denning as Hank Scott, and Mara Corday as Teresa Alvarez, and fun fact, Corday had appeared in Tarantula just two years earlier.
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Which means there was apparently a period in Hollywood history where Mara Corday was contractually obligated to spend her time fleeing oversized nightmare creatures across desert landscapes.
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And I ain't gonna lie, I respect the consistency.
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Alright, folks, until next time.
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Let's keep your feet on solid ground, keep your eyes away from cave entrances, and if somebody invites you into a volcanic crater in a 1950s horror movie, you know what?
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Go for it.
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Good night, and roll credits.
