Teenagers Battle the Thing

One of the other two reviews on here says this movie has a mysterious background. There is nothing mysterious about it.

Basically the movie sucked, it barely got a release and then like 20 years later during a Bigfoot craze in the news, the owners tried to cash in by expanding the unreleased film. The two stars from the original movie appear as adults in the opening scene of the 1976 film. The rest of Curse of Bigfoot consists of the entire 1963 film seen as a flashback. Except this original film focused on the resurrection of a mummy and had nothing to do with Bigfoot.

Anyway you look at it, it sucks

This is not a good example of independent filmmaking.

This film is about a bunch archeologists in their teenage years trying to find ancient artifacts, and sometimes a crappy paper mache bigfoot shows up.

This film's pacing is so boring and slow. Scenes are just filled with teenagers walking or talking, and shots just go on for a little too long. The cast is forgettable and I don't even think that we got to know the characters names.

The Bigfoot only kills one person and the crappy Bigfoot is only in three scenes, and those three scenes are the only entertaining parts of the movie. It's good mildly amusing schlock.

The camera is locked down and it barely excites visually. The lighting is so bad that you can barely see the crappy Bigfoot. The climax is anti climactic, and it's just a very bad movie.

The last three minutes are slightly enjoyable, it's bad but the Bigfoot is set on fire. Now that's some good schlock!

Even though Teenagers battle the thing has its charms with the bad acting and schlocky moments.

But it's ruined by its horrible pacing and a forgettable graceless script.

It's barely feature length, and that's the nicest thing I can say about it. It's mercifully short clocking in at about 58 minutes.

Not even an interest or curiosity. STAY FAR AWAY!

Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

** (out of 4)

A professor takes some of his students out into the woods where they discover an underground tomb. They locate some Indian items but the big discover is some sort of mummy. Soon the mummy comes back to life and it's a murdering ape-like creature.

TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING has a bizarre story behind its production and one that I'm going to guess is a mystery since I wasn't able to turn anything up on it. This 58 minute movie was completed in 1958 but it never got released outside the filmmaker's hometown. The film remained unseen until 1976 when footage was added to it and it was released as CURSE OF BIGFOOT. The footage in that version is in color and I haven't seen it yet so my comments with be about the original version only.

As far as this film goes, I must admit that it's one of those movies that you can enjoy while watching it but then when it's over you get a little upset that there wasn't more. In other words, you stayed glued to the movie expecting something or anything to happen so that keeps you entertained. Then, the movie is suddenly over and you can't help but wonder what the heck you just watched and why there was so little of it. The ape man costume here looks extremely cheap and corny but in its own way it's a nice outfit and it certainly makes for a good villain. I'm a little confused on why they only feature the monster in a couple scenes.

It's pretty obvious why this never got released because they've got more talking than actual monster. I'd understand if they didn't have a monster costume at all but you've got one so why on Earth did they not have it in the movie more? I guess this question will never be answered. Technically speaking the film is your typical "C" grade horror picture with the type of performances that you'd expect from it. TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING is certainly far from good but it's not as bad as some of the other monsters movies made in the 50s.

Boring crap (I started falling asleep during the opening credits) about five high school kids and two adults who go on some kind of half-baked archaeological expedition in the southwest and unearth a mummy who comes back to life as a hairy-looking freak. The fun begins when they discover a stone tablet on the ground. When one of the kids asks if the writing on it was made by Indians, one of the "experts" declares it was written by cavemen, "perhaps as ancient as Pithecanthropus Erectus." That's about as risqué as this film gets. Naturally, these clowns then dig up the tablet and find a cave underneath. This is probably where the director and screenwriter were hiding. In short order, they bring a mummy to the surface, although it looks more like a Plaster of Paris statue. Eventually the thing wakes up and kills one person who apparently just wandered onto the set. The police show up - one guy, that's all the producer could afford. He is completely useless, and is attacked by the creature. Unfortunately, he survives.

I wonder how long it took for someone to come up with the title.

Footage from this dud was used years later in "The Curse of Bigfoot," which I now have no desire to see.