Beast from Haunted Cave

One of the rarest experiences for a B-movie fanatic is to find a film you haven't seen in 30-plus years is much better than your childhood memory of it. While "Beast From Haunted Cave" was obviously made on a shoestring -- it's a Gene "Brother Of Roger" Corman production, so what do you expect? -- first-time director Monte Hellman (The Shooting, Two Lane Blacktop) had a better-than-average script and capable actors, not to mention a director of photography who made effective use of the stark winter landscape near Deadwood, South Dakota.

The film starts out slow as a gang plans and executes a robbery, but then it veers off into darker territory as they and their guide are trailed to the hideout by a surprisingly well-realized and startlingly nasty monster.

This is by no means a perfect film: There are occasional stumbles in motivation, dialogue and the timing of events, yet for me these inconsistencies actually contributed to an atmosphere of dreamlike disorientation as the story plays out against the bleached-bone white of the snow and the soot-black shadows of winter pines. The plight of the Beast's victims -- cocooned alive, and fully aware as it feeds on them -- yields a heaping helping of shudders.

The DVD transfer (I'm talking about the most recent release, not the one paired with "The Brain That Wouldn't Die") was made from an excellent print; the soundtrack is quite clear. You may recognize the score as the same used for "Attack Of The Giant Leeches" and -- I think -- "Night Of The Blood Beast": These guys knew how to recycle!

Even with its defects, this is a distinctly weird and surprisingly gruesome chiller, a fine example of how much can be accomplished even with limited resources.

The 50's are often fondly remembered by those growing up in them as a Golden age of SciFi & Horror movies. As a child of the 60's & 70's, I give grudging assertion to maybe a quarter of what came out. While this one pales in comparison to "The Thing" or "Them!," it certainly has it's own special quality. I first stumbled across it one quiet summer evening at my Uncle Billy's house in New Orleans. I caught it just after the opening credits, and thought I'd landed on "Peter Gunn" or one of the other B&W crime tales flooding the airwaves in '68. Silly me. I recently bought a DVD player and have begun amassing a collection. As as was my desire when I bought my first VCR, I am collecting these rare old gems. I got this one on a double-feature disk with "The Brain that Wouldn't Die!" Cool!

Plot wise, the film does a lot of character building in a short time, mainly by sticking with the basics: Scowling guy is the villain; he has two dorky henchmen (one of them a would-be Sid Melton); the girl is a tarnished angel-type; and our hero is a square-jawed manly man. I half expected his name to be Lance Manion (although Gil is pretty snazzy).

The locals of the town our villains flee to after a robbery are also cookie-cutters, the exception being the plump little barmaid the Sid Melton-ite bonds with. She shows some depth, and provides the ominous prophecy duties. The hottie bar-girl seemed to have been added as an after-thought(and she runs circles around fallen angel in the looks department). The villains decide to rob the town while they're there. The Beast pops up after the antagonists arrive in town. From barwench's tale, we learn that it is a local legend that no one ever proved existed, although some folk have disappeared over the years. The scenes of it acquiring victims are really creepy, and some of my older relatives have asserted this was a really scary flick back then. It's physical appearance leaves something to be desired, but this is a jaded child of the media talking. It's minimalism fits in fairly well with the production. I believe the intent was to portray it as a spider-monster, and the scene of it feeding on the hottie barmaid are really gruesome. The plot lurches a few times as it heads towards the final confrontation. Amazingly, square-jaw and fallen angel willingly go to the cave (the former laughingly mentioning the presence of the monster while the latter smiles admiringly at his virile countenance), soon followed by the ostensibly jealous scowler and henchman #2. Scowler, of course, is looking to off square-jaw (out of jealousy and common sense. It seems he has some connection to the local authorities). The monster appears, bad guys die, but not before Scowler sets the beast ablaze. The End. The wintry setting of the film adds to the isolated atmosphere, and with better production values and some dinero, a decent remake is possible (are you listening Charles Band?). If you get a chance, check it out. The DVD has the original theatrical trailer. too cool.

In a skiing station in Dakota, a gang of criminals leaded by Alexander "Alex" Ward (Frank Wolff) plans the heist of golden bars from a small bank. While the lover of Alex, Gypsy Boulet (Sheila Carol), goes to an isolated cabin with the ski instructor Gil Jackson (Michael Forest), a time bomb explodes a cave to divert the attention of the locals and the gangsters steal the gold. But the explosion releases a spider-like monster and due to a storm, the group becomes trapped in Gil's cabin and threatened by the creepy beast.

The debut of Monte Hellman as director is a typical trash movie of the 50's. The story is not bad; the low budget effects are very poor and laughable; the heroine is gorgeous; the sudden conclusion gives the sensation that the shooting was interrupted; and the cover of the Brazilian DVD is extremely funny with the following text: "Young girls scared and sucked by a maze of horror and blood of a hunger beast from hell", which is delightfully funny and ridiculous, since the story has nothing to do with it. In spite of these remarks, I like this type of film, which are part of mine childhood, therefore "Beast From Haunted Cave" is a good entertainment at least for me. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Besta da Caverna Assombrada" ("The Beast From the Haunted Cave")

On paper, this simply couldn't go wrong! The long-feature debut of brilliant director/producer Monte Hellman ("Two-Lane Backtop", "Cockfighter"), owing its existence to legendary producer Roger Corman, and fully belonging in one of my favorite cinematic hypes of all time: cheap 50's monstrous B-movies! Evidently, a whole lot went wrong… From sheer boring dialogs over irrelevant sub plots and onwards to a largely absent and – above all – uninspired titular monster design. The "beast" looks like a vague shape covered in cobwebs and that's just plain lame; even according to zero-budget 50's horror standards. The basic plot definitely holds potential, and for the first 20 minutes or so, I felt convinced I was watching a undiscovered gem of the genre. But the, incomprehensibly, the plot somehow stopped evolving and became an unendurably boring ordeal to struggle through. A quartet of gangsters carefully planned a risky gold heist near a skiing resort. Whilst the drunken love interest already embarks on a skiing trip with the instructor, the other three break into a bank before joining the others. During their perfect alibi, however, the assembly encounters (eventually) a hairy and aggressive monster living in the mountain caves. "Beast from Haunted Cave" is a nearly insufferably dull film, and that's all the more painful to acknowledge due to the promising intro. The heist concept is ingenious, the characters are intriguing (the girl is a manic depressive drunk and one of the robbers is a womanizer) and the ski-resort setting is quite effective (cashing in on the contemporary Abominable Snowman paranoia). The rudimentary plot ingredients for a charming 50's monster-mayhem flick are well present, but I'm extremely reluctant to announce this movie is an utter failure. Disappointing to the nth degree

The Corman family (notably Roger) has this nasty habit of padding a movie with lots of walking. Oh sure, there are variations on the theme. Generally, though you will find yourself subjected to a tour of Bronson Canyon, or wherever they decided to film that day's movie. Brother Gene has added variety by giving us lots of SKIING!!

The plot involves four theives who stage a mine explosion in South Dakota to divert the town's attention while the bank is relieved of gold bars - but only six bars! Why six? Why, they're going cross-country skiing to the lodge of a local man, and that's all they can carry. From there, they will hop a plane to Canada. Unfortunately, there's a monster following the crooks, sort of a cross between a spider and Bigfoot with extra floppy arms.

If it all sounds odd, that's because it is. The tension between the boss (I suspect it's really Donald Sutherland undercover) and his *ahem* secretary is almost palpable. Frank Sinatra's cousin's performance is outstanding, definitely paving the way for Frank Stallone's run of fame years later.

The disturbing thing is that if these crooks are into putting their fellow fireworks manufacturers out of business, why are we robbing banks in South Dakota? Let's face it, South Dakota is not known for much other than Sturgis and it's motorcycle rally. I'm trying to figure out how partially robbing a bank in South Dakota cements your claim to the fireworks empire. Fortunately, I have other things to worry about other than these jokers.

Sterno says spin your spider web somewhere else.