The Manster (1959)

[ Mood: Happy ]
“But Tara! He is exactly the type I need! This is for science, for human knowledge!

Rating:
Flow: ****
Special Effects: *****
Character Development: **
Entertainment Value: *****

Review:
It has been over two years since I posted my last review. I have no excuse beyond “I was writing my thesis,” which I successfully defended in May 2010. Tonight, for punishment (?), I subject myself to The Manster (1959). Wikipedia says the film is “notable for its creative use of special effects.” We shall see.

It opens with some sort of ape-thing murdering a woman. I’m having flashbacks to the first few minutes of The Beast of Yucca Flats, in which a woman is murdered, a scene never explained in the movie. Plenty of movies start off with a murder, though. This could still be good.

Excellent. Several minutes later, we return to the murder and the ape-thing. I can already tell that this will be better than The Beast. I’m not confused, yet, either, so it must be better than Star Odyssey. Unfortunately, these set a pretty low bar.

From the promising start, The Manster developed into a surprisingly good movie. Why? It relies on suspense. What will the mad Japanese scientist’s injection do to our hero? What is happening to his shoulder? Furthermore, the dialogue is not bad (though cliched: “This is for science!).

Is it campy? Yes! Is it repulsively bad? Absolutely not! With that in mind, if you think every movie that predates Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is awful, you will not like The Manster. You also will not like Citizen Kane, Forbidden Planet, or Metropolis. This is an entertaining representative of 1950s monster films that will not disappoint fans of the genre. As far as the special effects go, Wikipedia is right: not bad at all for 1959.

Clips and Links!
Trailer
Full Film

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