Sven- The Black Scorpion

 

A massive volcano releases giant prehistoric scorpions from the earth. They wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City. A team of scientists investigates and find out that these arachnids are deep inside a mountain.  It is not only the scorpions, a massive amount of hideous arthropods have been awakened.  The team closes the fissure, but several scorpions escape.  They battle each other, and the largest survives and menaces Mexico City.  It is a good thing that our hero, Dr. Hank Scott has found the weak point in the big one.

This was one movie that never aired out here when I was growing up.  We got The Giant Behemoth many time, but never this one.  The film's stop-motion animation special effects were created by Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson.  Peterson did most of the animation, and it is fantastic.

The script is pretty good, though perhaps it could be trimmed up a bit by a few minutes.  The obligatory but unneeded romance could be deleted.  Also, having the second lead, Dr. Arturo Ramos, being chased by the scorpion in the finale would have made it a little more personal, rather than some random army dude.

next- Konga (again, ugh)