Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Horror!? 14: Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)

I didn't want to end yesterday's movie binge on a note as sour as Don't Open Till Christmas, so I watched another -much better- one.
The directorial debut of Monte Hellman, whose energetic style and sense for dialogue reminds me of another great singular director, Sam Fuller.
The plot itself is nothing special: A small group of gangsters robs gold. To distract the police, they blow up an old gold mine, unwittingly releasing a creepy web-spinning thing with tentacles. Which of course follows them to their hide-out.
What makes the film special is its sense of style. There's not a single moment that is not in some way interesting to look at, no single small gesture of the actors that doesn't make sense. Even the monster is surprisingly horrific and much weirder than usual in films of this time.

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