Sunday, June 9, 2024

Sven- The Monolith Monsters (1957)

 

A meteorite crashes into the California desert.  It spreads shards all over the crash site.  People pick up shards, and inadvertently let the rocks get wet, which causes them to grow and also suck out "silica" from anything nearby, including people.  A convenient storm causes the rocks to grow, crash, and grow again, threatening the town of San Angelo.  It is up to the former shrinking man, Grant Williams as Dave Miller to figure out how reverse the petrification effects of the meteors and stop the crashing of the huge pylons of rocks from destroying the town.  It is a good thing there is a salt mine near the ravine and damn, now isn't it?

We saw this movie a lot in the 70s.  That programmer sure loved his 50s sci-fi movie.  I like it because it is also a can-do small movie- just a town of people trying to save their city and people.  No fancy weapons, no military to the rescue, just desperate people.  The rock effects are really nice, even if the miniatures are not up to anything Toho was doing at the same time.

Next- The Pit and the Pendulum

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