From Hell It Came

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 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?

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.

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.

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!