From Hell It Came

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.

Atomic fallout in the 50's had been blamed for many destructive forces, generally in the form of huge giant animal mutations such as ants in Them!, a Praying Mantis in Deadly Mantis, and the penultimate live wrecking machine Godzilla himself. But in this film - From Hell It Came - the atomic fall out causes a tree-like creature to wreak its revenge on a small island and its natives. This is a tree that has grown from a human corpse buried in a wooden casket...a casket that somehow germinates into this killing sapling called Tobanga. This film is a classic of its type. It has very poor production values, and the natives all have thick New York accents(being sure to lend the proceeding a complete air of unreality). Add some very unbelievable special effects and a far-out story - and of course a group of lead actors that would make ed Wood proud, and you have the core of this film. Despite its many shortcomings, the film is highly enjoyable as a piece of Le Bad Cinema. The most annoying aspect is the actress playing Mrs. Kilgore. After hearing her Australian accent and corny dialogue for what seemed an eternity....I was ready to get an axe!

In the 1950's, we had giant bugs, animals and dinosaurs, so it was a matter of time before somebody came up with the idea of a killer tree. Here is the result.

On a South Seas island, a man is wrongly accused of murder and vows to get revenge. He does in the form of a killer tree known as Tabanga, a local native spirit. A pair of American scientists, a man and a woman first notice something strange coming up from his grave, which turns out to be Tabanga. After uprooting him, they take the tree back to their lab for tests and they discover a heart beat and the following morning, the tree has escaped. The tree is also radioactive. It then starts to kill people and an attempt to burn the tree to death by natives is unsuccessful and the tree continues to kill people until one of the Americans shoots it and it falls to its death into a swamp and sinks. Through all this, the two American scientists fall in love with each other.

The cast is mostly unknowns, including Tod Andrews and Tina Carver as the scientists.

Despite the cheap looking tree monster and low budget, this movie was rather enjoyable and also unintentionally funny, especially some of the walking tree scenes. I taped this when it came on Channel 5 during the early hours of the morning.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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!

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.