Monster of the Day #1521

This is one of a couple of AIP horror movies taking advantage of the whole Bridey Murphy thing. The Unknown Undead was the other. Larry Buchanan remade this as he did yesterday’s. Those remakes are awful, but to be fair they were shot in color for $25,000, a sum at the time that even Corman himself would have respected.

AIP made 20 (!) films in 1957.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, funny that even back then remaking movies almost always ended up with a worse movie than the original.

    Wasn’t there some story about how Corman wanted to reuse a monster suit he already had so they slapped a pair of boobs on it?

  • Ericb

    I love that the obviously non-mammalian lobster woman has breasts.

  • Ericb

    What were these “authentic FACTS” that we’ve supposedly been reading about?

  • Eric Hinkle

    That sounds like him. Remember the spaceship from ‘Battle Beyond The Stars’?

  • Eric Hinkle

    The whole Bridey Murphy thing. Some woman was hypnotized and supposedly began talking about a prior life. It was a big to-do back in the 50’s and several movies and books on the topic of reincarnation were produced. Even the Bowery Boys and Three Stooges got in on the act.

  • Eric Hinkle

    The way this movie handles ‘reincarnation’ makes it sound more like something Bob Howard or Clark Ashton Smith did, where someone uses a secret mental technique/eldritch artifact and goes back through prior incarnations until they become something utterly inhuman and meet a horrible end. I wonder if the writer was thinking of them when they came up with the script?

  • bgbear_rnh

    Buchanan apparently can make a decent film with enough money. See “Bullet for Pretty Boy” one of the better low budget films to take advantage of the popularity of “Bonnie and Clyde”.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, I’m reading that Paul Blaisdell built the costume and Corman wanted to use it in this movie. When it was pointed out that it didn’t look even vaguely female he added the boobs and a wig!

  • Rock Baker

    THE UNDEAD, you mean. There was also a movie about Bridey Murphy, although the whole affair was exposed as a hoax before the movie was released. Supernatural horror in general was a hot property in the wake of the affair, ushering in films as diverse as THE THING THAT COULDN’T DIE and VOODOO WOMAN -which actually re-purposed the She Creature suit.

  • sandra

    THE UNDEAD was a neat little B-movie. You have to love a movie that features Billy Barty as an Imp and Dick Miller as a leper. Not to mention Bruno VeSota.

  • Flangepart

    She Creatures have dry cracked skin…guess the ocean ain’t a good moisturizer.

  • bgbear_rnh

    She-creature take day off tomorrow because of body shaming sexist pig like you

  • Ken_Begg

    I know the opposite happened. This suit here was also used in Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow with the monster boobs removed.

  • Ken_Begg

    Oops, yes.

  • Ken_Begg

    Mother in Law the Movie!

  • Eric Hinkle

    You mean I’m not the only person who saw GoDH?

  • Eric Hinkle

    By the way, given that this is AIP week, perhaps it will interest some of you to know that a new cable channel named Comet TV shows a lot of their films. Heck, tonight alone they’ve got the 1977 ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, and THE HAUNTED PALACE. Great stuff!

  • Marsden

    They are the ones you’ve been reading about!

  • Ken_Begg

    It’s pretty rare, I’ll give you that. Sort of a proto-beach party movie.

  • Rock Baker

    The combination of Pamela Duncan and Allison Hayes doesn’t hurt it, either, though I admit that’s purely a man’s perspective there…