Veio do Inferno

Fans looking for absurd, cheesy entertainment from the 1950s will be well served by this cheap and schlocky B-movie, forever remembered in the hearts of bad film buffs as the one about the "killer tree". Forget THE GIANT CLAW, this is the real stuff. Anybody who's seen one of those old-fashioned low-budget 'jungle' movies made on a set in Hollywood will find FROM HELL IT CAME packed full of the stock clichés present from the period, from 'witch doctors' throwing magic exploding powder into flames, to strangely American-looking natives padding out the cast of village extras, to a script which vainly tries to make scientifically-plausible sense of the chaos whilst keeping a healthy level of mumbo-jumbo native superstition bubbling merrily away.

At the end of the day, the film concerns the activities of a walking tree to kill people. The special effects used to animate said tree are appalling; basically it's just some unlucky guy in a silly rubber suit, completed with a goofy face and painted-on eyes. The flexibility of the suit is zero, with just a couple of rubber arms sticking out from each side, so at any point the monster is required to perform an action, it just ends up looking ridiculous. The cast isn't much better; aside from dependable (but ageing) male lead Tod Andrews, there don't appear to be many real actors in the cast list. Most annoying of all is Linda Watkins' character. The American Watkins speaks with a truly grating Cockney accent all of the time, then later on turns out to have supposedly come from Australia! It beggars belief, it really does. Just another whacked-out element to an already incredible movie. An immortal delight for bad-film buffs everywhere.

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!

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.

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!

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.