In a small mountain town, animals are being slaughtered left and right… and it doesn’t take long for human corpses to make the scene either.
But what’s behind this violence? Is it a bear? A mountain lion? No, those are too obscure for forest based killings. Naturally the answer is a giant mother fucking conquistador zombie resurrected by lightning.
Local geologist Wayne Brooks (Ed Kemmer), along with archeologist Dr. Cleveland (Morris Ankrum) and his daughter Janet (Sally Fraser); a trio that simply oozes rock (literally for Wayne) n’ roll sex magic charisma, team the fuck up to put an end to this preposterous menace in an hour and seventeen minutes.
I can’t even express how much I love a picture like Giant From the Unknown… it’s pure drive-in B picture comfort food that makes no sense (yet throws in some science shit to make it sound like it does), has an outrageous creature (played by Buddy Baer under make-up courtesy of Universal horror picture legend Jack P. Pierce), and features science and reason conquering the paranormal menace at hand. They don’t make ’em like they used to cats n’ creeps… but they well and truly should!
Even though I gave them shit up yonder, our leads here are very personable, and Kemmer makes for a fine hero (as he did in the same years’ Earth Vs. Spider, which co-starred Fraser as well)… but the casting of Billy Dix as a Native American dude will doubtless have eyebrows raised these days… hmm, I guess the same could be said about Baer as the Spanish conquistador zombie Vargas… there’s also a spruce standing in for an elm in one scene (try and spot it my eagle-eyed boils n’ ghouls)…
Hilariously enough, this film features a character named Charlie Brown… was it intentional, or just a coincidence? Fucked if I know!
Finally I have to mention the snowy finale of the film that was shot in an actual blizzard; this snowy locale gives the picture a unique flavor as most fright flicks of the era were filmed in the same canyons and deserts over and over.
So the feature film is a putrid peach of a picture, but let me tell ya; those sexy devils over at The Film Detective have included a beastly bounty of bonus features as well! First up is an interview with ol’ chuck himself, Gary Crutcher, followed by a piece with author C. Courtney Joyner discussing the career of Bob Steele (who played Sheriff Parker in the film) and the film’s trailer.
Following that we get two audio commentaries, one from film historian/professional wise-ass Tom Weaver who does his usual job of providing complete details of the film’s production in a highly entertaining fashion (and some light is shed on the “Charlie Brown’ biz), and one courtesy of Crutcher that provides plenty of anecdotes from his time on set.
To put a beastly bow on it; Giant From the Unknown is creature feature perfection and should be seen by every single one of you monster-kid mother fuckers reading these wicked words!
