InspireGato Film Perfection

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

utgard14 Interesting 'B' horror pic from AIP about a carnival hypnotist (Chester Morris) who is able to use hypnotism to make a woman regress to her prehistoric self, a humanoid sea monster. Naturally he uses this amazing ability to have this she-creature kill people. Chester Morris has seen better days and appears to have a quart of oil in his hair, presumably to make him look younger. Tom Conway is well past his prime, as well. Both do fine for what kind of movie they're in. The rest of the cast is unremarkable, except for sexy Marla English who plays the woman who transforms into the title monster. She's the highlight of the movie, along with Paul Blaisdell's cool monster suit. I also thought a few scenes were genuinely atmospheric and impressive, so it's not all schlock. Undoubtedly this was trying to capitalize off of The Search for Bridey Murphy, a popular book in the '50s about hypnotic regression and past lives that had a film adaptation released the same year as this. It's not great but it is enjoyable for fans of old B horror movies. Certainly better than a lot of the other garbage AIP put out. Director Edward Cahn would reunite with stars Conway, English, and Lance Fuller the following year for Voodoo Woman, an uninspired effort that tries (and fails) to recapture this movie's charms. They even reuse the same monster suit.

ctomvelu1 One of the worst monster movies of the 1950s, THE SHE-CREATURE is about a sinister hypnotist (Chester Morris) who somehow is able to awaken a sea creature from the distant past to do his bidding. The monster fortunately is not fully seen until the last few minutes of the movie, and it turns out to be just a man in a rubber suit. That rubber suit with some modifications turned up in a second monster movie of the period, but I have mercifully forgotten which one. Veteran actor Morris, best known for playing Boston Blackie, is joined in this tomfoolery by fellow Hollywood veteran Tom Conway (George Sanders' brother and best known for playing The Falcon). Conway shows up as a sleazy fellow looking to cash in on the hypnotist's deal. One of the worst acted and silliest monster movies ever made. Most of the movie is spent listening to Morris jabber on and on. And on. Ugh.

The_Void I went into this film expecting nothing good of it whatsoever; my only interest in seeing it coming as a result of the fact that I'm a fan of the little known 2001 remake - but to my surprise, this actually is a fairly decent film...if you can forgive it's many shortcomings. The film is clearly what would be called "Z Grade Horror" - the production values are low, the acting is largely terrible and I wouldn't be surprised to find that the script took less than a day to write...but actually there's some original ideas in the film that help to save it. The plot revolves around a hypnotist named Dr. Carlo Lombardi. He claims that he can prove reincarnation exists by regressing his beautiful assistant back to a previous life. However, his experiments eventually take on a physical form and do so in the form of a mutant sea creature. The creature comes from the sea and begins killing people. Several people believe the doctor to be at the heart of the killings.The most ridiculous thing about the film is, of course, the monster itself...which looks pretty silly. Think The Creature from the Black Lagoon, with breasts. The film clearly didn't have much of a budget either and much of it is taken up by talking and/or scenes that don't require any special effects - director Edward L Cahn having the good sense to keep the monster's appearances down to a minimum. The plot does have some problems too and many of the good ideas are not addressed in such a way to make them effective, which is a shame as clearly much more could have been made of the film. That being said, the ideas we do get are fairly clever; the whole hypnosis plot is not the most obvious route to a film about a monster coming out of the sea. Chester Morris takes the lead role and is probably the pick of the cast; his is the only performance that actually seems to have any effort at all put into it. Overall, I can't say that this is great or a must see; but it's much better than I expected and fans of fifties monster movies might get a kick out of it.

lqueral Acting is hokey, but it was fun to watch anyway. I really thought Marla English, who plays Andrea, was an extremely attractive woman. She reminded me a LOT of an old girlfriend. The creature is really funny looking, as were a lot of other creatures of the era (The Day The World Ended, Horror of Party Beach, etc.). The guy that plays the hypnotist I've seen around in quite a few of these older movies, and overacts in this one. What's really funny is how I was actually spooked when I saw these films as a kid, and now they're a riot to watch. That's what 40 years later will do for you (grin). Remember, don't look for Academy Award performances here, but it will entertain.