From Hell It Came

I remember watching this oldie-but-goodie when I was growing up--I think it was on Creature Features.

It was intriguing in its own appealing-to-nine-year-olds sort of way. I remember the scientists trying to save its life by putting it on their operating table, and then realizing they need to find some green blood. And I recall at least one scene where a woman was drowning in quicksand. (Quicksand--remember that? It was the bane of horror for male kids back then. Whenever my friends and I would be playing "War" or "Jungle" in the fields behind my house, one of us would always end up flailing away in quicksand.)

But the memory that stays with me the strongest is a nightmare I had some time after seeing this flick. That horrible face on the tree stump was silly when you watched the Tabanga walking around, but disembody it in your unconscious mind and it acquires a new, more terrifying dimension. I suppose I'll always remember that one dream.

One thing I never understood about the title, though--the prince who died and was reincarnated as the tree stump was good, so assuming he went to heaven after dying, why does the title say that he came from Hell?

Yes, by todays standards..Yada, Yada.. This one perhaps even by '50s standards was a bit low budget..

However, if you remember this one from when you were a kid, then you can still hold a place for it in your monster closet 8-) As a kid this thing scared me on the big screen, and I'm so glad I didn't know what I know today to spoil it for me. A very special time when we could go down town and watch a couple of these "monster" flicks on a Saturday.

Not to mention the fun time spent looking at all the stills out front and in the lobby !!

I still hold those original feelings inside and can enjoy watching these again, with the added enjoyment in the fact that I WANT to enjoy them and revisit my past.

Hilariously stupid schlock favourite has a deliciously ludicrous premise and overall is good fun, although for a while it's overly talky. It isn't until the final third that we see some priceless killer tree action. The filmmaking Milner brothers, director Dan and co-story author / producer Jack (who'd also done "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues" previously) bumble their way through this kitschy combination of South Seas atmosphere, lame acting, very silly lines, and not very special effects. All of these elements make "From Hell It Came" a cinematic stinker that one can treasure.

A group of scientists on a remote island are trying to provide medical care to the locals, but the witch doctor and new tribal chief will have none of it. They execute Kimo (Gregg Palmer), son of the previous chief, for having the audacity to accept the help of these meddling Americans. But Kimo vows to return, and so he does, as something called the Tabanga, a lumbering humanoid walking tree (played by wrestler turned stuntman & actor Chester Hayes), and he proceeds to get his revenge. The scientists, meanwhile, don't ever look too concerned.

Starring as supposedly heroic doctor Bill Arnold is Tod Andrews ("Beneath the Planet of the Apes"), looking stone faced throughout. Playing the requisite female lead is pretty Tina Carver, whose character Terry Mason is portrayed as brainy but not too sensible, and eventually it's obviously her destiny to be carted away by the monster. Robert Swan, as witch doctor Tano, and Baynes Barron, as new tribal chief Maranka, are reasonably fun villains. Linda Watkins, however, is fatally annoying as motor mouthed trading post operator Mae Kilgore, affecting an absurd accent for the part.

One supposes that Jack Milner and screenwriter Richard Bernstein deserve credit for coming up with a different sort of monster for the atomic age. In any event, "From Hell It Came" is a real gas certain to have its audience chuckling often. It comes complete with a moral that "American magic is better", which just makes it all the more amusing.

Five out of 10.

Oh, sorry....that was the tree in Wizard of Oz. However, another malevolent animated tree is on the loose, but this time it's the dreaded Tabonga, who wanders around an island scaring guys in Hawaiian tourist costumes.

Actually, the plot shows some originality (even if the production quality is a laugh riot). A tribal chief on a tropical island somewhere commits the Unpardonable Sin by being friends with some American scientists who are studying....um, something, not sure what. So, some members of his tribe conspire together and kill him. Something about nuclear power resurrects him as a tree. Yup, a tree. Or at least, the stump of a tree, with a scowling face painted on. It appears to be inked by the same artist, with the same black magic marker, that did the alien's face in "It Conquered the World."

Anyway, the tree goes on a vengeful rampage and starts to get even with his murderers, one by one. Since guns and other typical weapons are (like always) useless against this thing, it's up to the scientists to find a way to stop this wooden creature before he wipes everybody out. Tension mounts to excruciating levels as Tabonga hobbles around, chasing and terrorizing horror-stricken islanders at about the velocity you would expect a tree to move at.

One of the all-time so-bad-it's-good classics from the golden age of drive-ins, right up there with Plan 9 and Robot Monster. It really is fun to watch, if nothing else than certainly for the laughs it provides. Best watched with friends; you can have a MST3K style "bark jokes at the screen" party.

I was 4 or 5 when we saw this. It would be another thirteen years or so before it would be shown again on television, but my brother and sister and watched it that night back in the mid-70's. What a hoot!

Around that same time acquired a full-sheet poster of the movie from a now-defunct movie warehouse in Philly. Wished now I would have kept it, but I traded it for some awesome old western lobby cards.

The "Tobonga" is one of my favorite childhood monsters. I remember the next day after watching it the first time I rode my tricycle up over the hill beyond where we lived to join another group of kids. My brother pointed to a stump that was part of a fence post and warned me about the tree-monster! I turned and pedaled all the way home as fast as I could! That old stump is still there! That was in '64 or 65'.

Loved the quicksand! Always been a fan of jungle flicks, so I must credit this awful little film for that!