Caltiki - Rätsel des Grauens

"Caltiki", the story of a carnivorous micro-organism in the Mexican jungle grown to terrifying proportions by the radiation of a once-in-every-seventy-millenia comet, enjoys the same sort of on-the-surface "B" movie innocent schlockiness and underlying dark edginess mix which graced legendary Roger Corman's monster and sci fi work in the late fifties. The monster is a product of nature, however, and probably would not have been a problem to modern civilization, but true to the 1950s paradigm of idiot scientists not knowing when to leave well enough alone, a team of doltish researchers actually recover a bit of the slithery beast to play around with. Of course, the scientists discover that the monster considers laboratory induced radiation just as good as the natural kind. The results, as one may imagine, are not good (but are plenty entertaining for us!)

A scene in which a deranged victim of the monster is devoured outright is delightfully disgusting (the monster SLOWLY overwhelms its victim--pulsating and digesting--and then recedes to reveal a denuded skull). The low budget effect equals even the high tech grislyness of Chuck Russel's recent "The Blob". Not at all bad. I saw it when I was eight and it gave me nightmares for years!

This shocking movie provides great load of screams , terror, creepy atmosphere which becomes pretty sinister with the mound of glop appearing here and there . Set in Mexico , this sci-fi picture has blob-ish fiend pursuing members of a team of archaeologists . As the scientific people in Mexico encounter an amorphous , blob-like monster that shows up to be connected with the collapse of the Mayan civilization. This monster is stripping human flesh from bone , creeping, multiplying, devouring and hungry for the blood of a world . Along the way , a comet from exterior space is due to pass close to the Earth , resulting to be the same comet passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. And at a house and a hospital are besieged by the enormous, man-eating amoebic mass and fast-growing .Will the first life on Earth be the last terror of Man?. Terror amok! Hungry for the flesh of the world! . Towering over Jungle and City... Creeping, Multiplying, Devouring! Man is no longer the supreme being on this planet ! . Now, terror has no shape !. Scream now, while there's still room to breathe. Terror has no shape. If it had a mind, you could reason with it. If it had a face, you could look it in the eye. And if it had a body, you could shoot it. Slimy Glob of Doom Engulfs The World! . Crawling, Crushing Colossus of Terror!. None Can Stop It! Nothing Can Kill It! The Ever Growing Thing! Armies of the World Combat Deadly Menace! Death Dance of the Voodod Virgin! Whole Cities Swallowed Up By Gruesome Mile-High Glob!

A camp classic that was shot with medium budget from the Fifties containing intrigue , suspense , grisly murders and lots of blood and gore , while shocking when the large Glob exploding through the theater screen and the spectators are watching. The plot is plain a simple, a group of archaeologists investigating some Mayan ruins come across a blob-like monster , then things go wrong . The movie belongs to Italian Horror genre , in which Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) along with Mario Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films , this ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . Although being poorly conceived , however being entertaining and fun enough . It's a sleek production with genuine chills , tension, shocks and nice special effects by Mario Bava himself , making an exciting slimy jello invader and frightening and horrifying to the audience . This thrilling film was well starred by an unknown but functional duo : John Merivale and Didi Sullivan , accompanied by a plethora of familiar Italian actors , such as : Giacomo Rossi Stuart , Daniela Rocca , Daniele Vargas , Gérard Herter , Arturo Dominici , Nerio Bernardi and Renzo Palmer as narrator . This¨Caltiki il mostro immortale¨ or ¨Caltiki, the Immortal Monster¨ (United States title,1959) takes parts of ¨The Blob¨ (1958) by Irvin S Yeaworth with Steve McQueen , the latter was followed by a remake that rips off Irvin S. Yeaworth's version ,¨The Blob¨ (1988) by Chuck Russell with more gore and guts than original, being again remade by Larry Hagman in ¨Beware, the Blob¨ (1972) .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Riccardo Freda assisted by Mario Bava. Riccardo Freda used to sign his works with a number of aliases during his career, including Robert Hampton or George Lincoln and as screenwriter Riccardo Freda . His artistic spirit led him to a strong belief in the importance of visual composition in filmmaking . Freda worked in many popular genres, including viking films, Peplum, spaghetti westerns, action, and even Softcore, but it is his horror films and Giallo mystery films which stand out and for which he is best remembered . Freda along with Vittorio Cottafavi continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . From the mid-50s Freda's liking make for atmospheric and colorful scenes of shock began to itself apparent , especially in such Musclemen epics as ¨Teodora¨ , ¨Spartacus¨ , ¨Giants of Thessaly¨ , ¨The seventh sword¨ , ¨Maciste all's inferno ¨, the latter a gripping/horror Peplum and , of course, ¨Maciste in the court of the Great Khan¨, one of his best films . In the early 60s , he was a pioneer in Italy of horror-fantasy films frightening audiences the world over , especially with ¨I Vampiri¨ and ¨L'Orrible Segreto del Doctor Hitchcock¨ as he combined with that wide-staring of actress , the British-born Barbara Steele . He also made adventures as ¨Black Eagle¨ , ¨The son of Black Eagle¨ , ¨White devil¨ , ¨Son of D'Artagnan¨ , and uncredited ¨Daughter of D'Artagnan¨ ¨. From there he went to melodrama and spy films as ¨¨Mexican Slayride¨and ¨Coplan FX18¨ and even made some westerns as ¨No killing without dollars¨ with Mark Damon and signed under pseudonym as George Lincoln . Freda's movies had popular appeal , and were usually commercial hits . Several were French/Spanish/Italian or other European co-productions . He has been called a filmmaker "who brings some style to exploitation pictures", and has something of a cult following . Rating : 6.5/10 , better than average horror/monster movie .

This is not one of those slow-moving B-Movies from our youth. This is a wild and fairly exciting Italian-made/Mexico set hybrid. Very much like THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN) with a little THE BLOB, X-THE UNKNOWN and THE BRAINIAC thrown in, this is a highly enjoyable little lark. Track it down if you can!

I saw this when I was 8 years old, and it scared me so much I had to momentarily leave my seat. I ran back to the men's restroom and hid inside for a minute or so, then slowly came back out and stood in back by the usher and watched for another minute or two more, and finally returned to my seat for the rest of the movie. This never happened to me in any other movie, and as an adult, I was very curious to know just what it was in this otherwise standard black and white B-Movie Monster fare that could cause such a reaction. I just watched it again, for the first time since 1959, and I believe it was a combination of having my wits scared out of me when I identified with the little girl and her mother trapped in the bedroom with Catiki swelling up against the door, and stomach churning revulsion at the nasty looking mess that was left after Caltiki started digesting its victims. Unlike Steve McQueen's Blob which looked almost like an edible piece of cherry Jello, Caltiki sometimes took on the appearance of a soiled cloth rag completely saturated with thick dark mud (or some unmentionable organic substance), and the mess that was left after it digested its victims was indescribably disgusting for the era. The plot is corny and hackneyed, with the obligatory hysteria over the evils of radiation, and knuckle-headed careless scientists. But it is campy and scary, and worth watching. I ended up springing for a DVD, since I never see this shown on television anymore, apart from once seeing it offered by Showtime many years ago. Why do movies like this just vanish?

I'm not a big fan of fifties monster movies in general, but this one is pretty decent. The film was directed by Riccardo Freda, although he was going under the pseudonym 'Robert Hamton' in order to fool audiences into thinking that the film was an American picture. The film does take obvious influence from the American monster movies and is similar in style, plot and execution; and actually credit does have to go to Freda in that respect as if it wasn't for the awful dubbing, one would have no reason to think that this wasn't an American film. The plot is rather well worked and focuses on the demise of the Mayan civilisation. We focus on a team of archaeologists studying some ancient Mayan ruins when they come across a cave which houses a lake. After diving into the lake, they discover that it is full of gold; although things go a bit awry when they also find out that the lake is inhabited by an ancient blob-like monster. They end up taking part of the creature back to the lab where upon studying it, they realise it could threaten the whole world...

It was unveiled that many of the films which Riccardo Freda took credit for were actually directed by his young apprentice, Mario Bava - and Caltiki is one of those films. I have no idea how much of the film was directed by Bava, but I'd hesitantly say that I think it was mostly done by Freda as the film does not feature much in the way of Bava's trademark styling's; although in truth the filming style is all very by the numbers and there's not a lot of room for stylish visuals. The plot is well done, however, and is certainly more inventive than I thought it might be. The special effects are not particularly spectacular; though they certainly are serviceable for the type of film and are used well. There are a handful of good ideas on display - the fate that awaits a particularly greedy archaeologist being one of the best parts of it. The film tries to a bit spectacular towards the end, and it does work somewhat, although many of the American pictures did the spectacular ending better. Still, this is a decent little monster movie and I'm sure fans of this stuff will enjoy it.