Monster of the Day #2067

Updated on January 29, 2020 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

The second of director Eugene Lourie’s three sea monster movies, although when you start with Beast from 20,000 Fathoms there’s nowhere to go but down. Originally titled, and inspiring much japery, as The Giant Behemoth, somebody finally figured out how silly that title is and now it seems to be called Behemoth the Sea Monster. Brought to you by the fine folks at Flick Vault on YouTube. Stop motion effects (although the puppet isn’t great) by the pioneer Willis O’Brien.

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    I don’t think I’ve seen this one.

  • Ericb

    It took them a while to figure out the silliness of the title, it was still The Giant Behemoth when I saw it in the early and mid 70s. This movie creeped me out a bit as a kid as the monster emitted blast of radiation though its skin and killed people by radiation poisoning and burns.

  • Gamera977

    But wasn’t in the Biblical references the Leviathan a sea monster and the Behemoth a land dweller? I always pictured the Behemoth as a gigantic buffalo/bison sorta critter- somewhat like Paul Bunyan’s blue ox Babe only even bigger and not so blue.

  • It’s on YouTube, as mentioned, and it does show scientists doing some actual science.

  • bgbear_rnh

    That sounds right, IIRC they represent the firmaments.

  • Rock Baker

    BEHEMOTH, THE SEA MONSTER is the British title. On these shores it’s still THE GIANT BEHEMOTH. You seem to see a lot more British prints for these sorts of movies popping up these days for some reason.

  • I kinda dig all three of Lourie’s Dino flicks. This is the worst of the trio, and it’s still pretty good.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I had to wait until adulthood to see this one and I felt vaguely disappointed. I think I would have taken it much more to heart had seen it as a child. Still it’s a good B-movie monster pic and I do like the monster.

    Pity they couldn’t have done it as a crossover with Quatermass. It would’ve been interesting to see how he would have handled it.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, that’s always unpleasant. Even worse (but more effective) is the hospital orderly killed by radiation in X the Unknown.

  • Ken_Begg

    Maybe they just actually stored them. A lot of more obscure movies seem to have survived because of 16mm TV prints rather than a master print.

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, I love sea monsters, so yes. And Beast is legitimately one of the top ten giant monster movies, certainly non-Japanese ones.

  • Rock Baker

    Leviathan is referenced as being near the water, which is why some scholars take it to be a crocodile. The same scholars usually assume the Behemoth to be a hippo. Going by the actual descriptions, though, the Behemoth sounds like a spot-on description of a Brontosaurus (particularly since hippos lack a tail “that swings like a cedar” tree. The Leviathan sounds rather like a carnosaur, or even a dragon. Mention is made of smoke coming from it’s mouth!