Simply Perfect

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Another so-bad-it's-good that's not that bad Roger Corman sci-fi from 1958. An experimental rocket with an astronaut inside crash-lands from the outer atmosphere. It appears our astro-guy is dead but he still has blood pressure? Go figure that anomaly. Meanwhile our land crew is stuck in a research facility in the middle of nowhere, miles away from civilization. It also appears that something came back hidden in the rocket and is attacking the crew in the dark and offing the lead scientist, lobbing part of his head off. While all this is going on our astronaut comes back to life, frightening the bejabbers out of the women. When examined it turns out the guy is preggers, carrying alien embryos and it's the mysterious creature running around in the night who's the daddy. The expectant guy then verbally defends the creature to his fellow humans and it becomes a race to prevent the takeover of Earth and a humane way to end this guy's pregnancy. Sheeesh. I have the Retromedia DVD version and it's good quality, but I've read somewhere that the Alpha Video DVD may be better quality. Whichever is better, the film still could use re-mastering. Highly recommended for fans of this genre.

Send a rocket out farther than they have ever gone before. The rocket returns with the astronaut in an uncontrolled descent that ends in a crash. He appears to be dead and his body is returned to the base. Here it is determined that his body is not deteriorating as it should yet there are no signs of life. Turns out he has been impregnated (?) by an alien who hitched a ride down to earth. The alien tries to come across as peaceful but it turns out it is not. It seems impervious to regular weapons such as guns but susceptible to fire. Chasing it and the pilot to a cave the scientists and party learn about the alien's intentions for earth. The astronaut also learns this and stabs himself, the scientists use Molotov cocktails and flare guns to finally destroy the alien and at least temporarily save earth.

Night of the Blood Beast starts as Major John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) blasts off into outer space in a rocket named the X-100, on his descent back to Earth something goes wrong though & the X-100 crash lands on a mountain. The nearest military base is alerted & Dave Randall (Ed Nelson) & Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter) rush to the crash site but find John dead inside the X-100. John's body is taken to the military base but resident scientist Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey) notices some strange reading from John's body & blood which appear to indicate he is still alive, later that night John regains consciousness having been exposed to an alien life-form which has impregnated him with little baby aliens. The big mean alien is now on Earth on the loose trying to ensure it's babies hatch from inside John. Fearing that the alien is hostile & threatens the whole of mankind it's up to the few base personnel to destroy it before it can destroy us...Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski this cheap Roger Corman produced black and white 50 sci-fi horror monster flick is an OK time waster I suppose but nothing more, it has a few alright ideas & at only 62 minutes long doesn't outstay it's welcome. The script seems like a rip-off of The Thing from Another World (1951) with it's isolated military base, the few character's cut off from the outside world & an alien threat that must be stopped before it contaminates & destroys all of humanity. Unfortunately that's where the comparisons stop as Night of the Blood Beast is a cheap rip-off with the atmosphere of the freezing Artic or the menace of the alien creature, any attempt the script makes to try & sympathise with the alien are wasted & come across as half hearted. I mean when an alien eats half your mates head you just aren't going to consider it friendly are you? In a side-note it's interesting to think (or not, depending on your viewpoint) that the alien gestating & growing inside a human body idea would later famously be used in the Alien series of films to much, much better effect. No-one seems that bothered by John coming back to life or the presence of an alien life-form until the very end I was never convinced that they were as cut off & isolated as they kept saying they were. I also don't understand why the alien was so passive, if the humans were such a threat to it's offspring why not just kill them all? I suppose it moves along at a decent pace, the script tries to blur the lines between the standard killer & friendly alien clichés although without much success it has to be said & it passes an hour or so without really ever being that gripping or entertaining. Not worst example of a 50's sci-fi monster film but not the best either.The actual blood beast alien looks like a man in a rubber suit because it is a man in a rubber suit. The alien has a big bulbous head & a sort of beak like thing & two black eyes, it is otherwise human in appearance with two arms & two legs with stringy stuff hanging off it's body. The actor inside the suit obviously had difficulty in moving properly, the alien costume later featured in the film Teenage Caveman (1958). Director Kowlaski could have made more use of the enclosed military base but instead stages a lot of action outside in broad daylight which lessens the scares & atmosphere. The X-100 rocket special effects look cheap & fake with less than convincing model work.With a supposed budget of about $68,000 this was filmed in Hollywood & nearby Bronson Canyon, originally released as a double feature with She Gods of Shark Reef (1958). The acting is alright if a little wooden like a lot of sci-fi from this period, the cast features no-one of any note whatsoever.Night of the Blood Beast is a decent little sci-fi horror that passes the time, it has a few good moments & although the alien monster looks fake it doesn't look as silly or goofy as many film monsters from this period. It could have been worse I suppose, a lot worse.

This slightly ponderous late 50's sci-fi-horror schlock isn't entirely a loser. It's about a manned space rocket that crash lands in a remote area. A bunch of scientists go to investigate and discover that the astronaut is in some kind of coma; he's being kept alive by alien embryos that have been mysteriously implanted in him. Anyway, the title alien monster soon raises it's head causing general havoc, including partial head removal.The main problem with the film is it's pacing. It takes quite a while for the Blood Beast to appear, and he really only comes into his own in the last 20 minutes or so. He is undoubtedly a completely ridiculous creation but that's really not a problem as he provides a fair amount of comic relief. At the end of the movie where we have the final stand-off and this ludicrous creature starts talking with the voice of the doctor he killed earlier, you will be doing well not to have a giggle. So too in the brilliant x-ray scene where we see the alien embryos floating about in the astronaut's body - it's just too funny for words.But unfortunately, the fun moments in Night of the Blood Beast come too few and far between. If you're a 50's sci-fi nut though then it's well worth checking this one out. Just don't expect too much.