An astronaut, Maj. John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) fails to stick the landing… but after his body is recovered by his scientist peers at a remote outpost it is discovered that while quite deceased, his body shows signs of life… and his blood is mutating.
Worse still, all radio communication with the outpost is severed, and all electricity fails to function as the night progresses, leaving our handful of heroes stranded.
To make the outré evening more bizarre, Ground Control to Major John is soon up on his feet and back among the living… but unfortunately, one of the other members of the team has turned up dead, and John seems to have absorbed his knowledge.
After further evaluation, John has a belly full o’ alien babies and the beastly Baby Daddy is stalking around, ready to do what it takes to keep it’s brood alive!
Coming from director Bernard L. Kowalski (who would helm Attack of the Giant Leeches a year later… and we’ll get back to that one soon), and writers Gene Corman (brother of legendary B-Movie producer Roger Corman… who produced this feature as well) and Martin Varno, 1958’s Night of the Blood Beast is an effective lil’ sci-fi creature feature thriller comprised of a small cast and one set (though time is spent assing around Bronson Canyon and outside a small television studio).
What begins as a take on Howard Hawks’ 1951 adaptation of The Thing From Another World quickly (and I mean quickly as this film runs just over an hour) soon echoes Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) in many ways (though that film has ’50s drive-in sci-fi in it’s acidic blood in many ways) before throwing some twists and turns of it’s own into the mix.
The titular beast gets plenty of screen time, and will be familiar to viewers of Corman’s Teenage Caveman from the same year… and is a gaslighting glob of beak, burlap, and claws… it’s suitably funky looking, and impossible for a Monster Kid like me to resist! Just hearing this monstrosity try and convince our heroes of it’s supposedly altruistic intentions is worth the price of admission here.
Also worth the price of admission are the extras presented here by Film Masters on this Blu-ray release that kick off with an audio commentary from film historian Tom Weaver (and V.O. pals) that examines the film with snark and facts in equal doses!
After that, we get the Mystery Science 3000 episode dedicated to the film, the 8MM truncated home release of the film, a re-created trailer, a publicity sideshow for Night of the Blood Beast as well as Attack of the Giant Leeches, and a film restoration comparison.
Moving on to Disc Two…
Attack of the Giant Leeches begins with a whole general store full of Southern stereotypes debating the existence of a strange creature witnessed in the nearby swamps… when their eyes aren’t falling out of their heads ogling the shop keep’s attractive wife, Liz (Yvette Vickers, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) that is.
Enter: new in town game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) who just so happens to think the creature may be real after all (thanks in no small part to the research of his gal pal’s Doctor father)… and he soon finds out, he’s right!
Will Steve and Co. be able to put an end to the blood-sucking monsters before the entire county is drained dry?!
While often concerned with backwoods melodrama, Kowalski’s (this time joined by screenwriter Leo Gordon, The Wasp Woman) Attack of the Giant Leeches is still an effective and fun creature feature!
And what creatures they are; leech octopus hybrids that resemble a body bag with a false mouth glued on and sketchy tentacles; in other words, these beastly beauties were constructed on the cheap, but the imagination utilized to bring them to life shines through making them easy to appreciate!
Adding greatly to the atmosphere (and production value), is the effective use of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden that provides suitably swampy locations filled with dense vegetation and languid lagoons (without the need to move the production to the Florida Everglades or someplace similar which wasn’t in the budget).
As with Night of the Blood Beast, Attack of the Giant Leeches features special features to accompany the main event including: another audio commentary courtesy of Weaver, the Mystery Theater 3000 version of the film, a featurette on Kowalski, a re-created trailer, and a Yvette Vickers image gallery.
The package also includes liner notes provided by Weaver as well.
Full of unique creatures, fun ideas, and a heap of charm, the Night of the Blood Beast/Attack of the Giant Leeches double feature is absolute fried gold for lovers of ’50s Drive-In monster mayhem!
