Caltiki, le monstre immortel

Pretty darn decent little sci-fi horror flick. A really excellent story that loses steam in the last 20 minutes...but slick direction and some incredible makeup/gore for the era put it over the top.

Amusing, cheap Italian imitation of "the Blob" (along the same lines as the British "X: The Unknown", this film exchanges heroic teenagers for the more usual scientists). Involves scientists who have dug too deeply into the mysteries of "Caltiki" and awakened the giant jelly after his centuries-long snooze. The lead scientist is so smart he leaves a chunk of Caltiki on a table near his kitchen.

Poor direction, hilariously impossible dialogue in the best 50s American style. The photography is noticeably better in quality from the rest of the film, so I wasn't too surprised to see genre pro Bava's name attached (looks like he may have directed some of the more fast and furious climax scenes, too).

All in all, a fun entry in the 50s horror cycle that holds up to the better American camp films of the same period.

This Italian sci-fi/horror film has been mentioned so often ever since I've been browsing the Internet (and prior to that on the occasional reference book) that it had practically acquired legendary status! Now that I've watched it myself, I can say that it's an effective blend of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955) and Mexi-Horror – though it's not as intellectual as the former, nor as campy as the latter (on the accompanying Audio Commentary, Luigi Cozzi also mentions the Japanese sci-fi THE H-MAN [1958] as a possible influence); the climax, then, seems to have been inspired by QUATERMASS II (1957) – while the archaeologists' discovery of footage shot by their missing/deranged companions actually looks forward to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979).

For its miniscule budget (which shows in the distinct lack of extras during a conference held to announce to the world the historic find!), the film's look (Rome standing in for Mexico!) and make-up effects (quite repulsive for the time, with the monster scenes themselves being perhaps more extensive than contemporary genre efforts) are very convincing; the attack by the blob-like monster on lead John Merivale's house (with his wife and daughter trapped inside) is especially well done – and reasonably scary. The cast – also featuring Gerard Herter (an unsympathetic variant on THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT's Richard Wordsworth), Daniela Rocca and Arturo Dominici – is interesting as well and there's a fine, suitably rousing score by Roberto Nicolosi.

The DVD supplements are superb (I'm lucky to be fluent in Italian) and include two separate interviews featuring genre exponent Luigi Cozzi – who attempts, firstly, to restore to its proper place screenwriter/designer Filippo Sanjust's undervalued contribution to the film and, then, outlines Bava's exact function behind-the-scenes (he didn't actually direct any of it but, following Freda's departure, took charge during the editing stage) – and critic/historian Steve Della Casa – who talks about Freda's place in the history of Italian cinema and mentions an especially amusing anecdote involving Freda and another cult film-maker, Vittorio Cottafavi, on meeting one another in their old age at a Film Festival (each thought the other would look down on his work only to discover that they were secret admirers of one another!). It's a pity, therefore, that film buffs unfamiliar with the language can't enjoy the Audio Commentary either, as it's a truly fascinating discussion: among other things, critic Giona A. Nazzaro voices his regret over the lost art of Italy's genre cinema; there's also an interesting sideline into the unusually creative contribution of editors to Italian films during this era, among whom Mario Serandrei (responsible for CALTIKI itself) was one of the undisputed masters; Cozzi, however, mistakenly refers to John Merivale as having played Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN TERROR (1965), when it was actually John Neville (Merivale didn't in fact appear in that film!).

Finally, since Image's DVD of an earlier Freda/Bava collaboration – I VAMPIRI (1957) – hasn't gone out-of-print and, so, will probably not be part of Anchor Bay's upcoming Mario Bava releases, I may well spring for it in the near future along with THE GHOST (1963), an unwatched classic Freda that's been coupled with a German Krimi – DEAD EYES OF London (1961) – on the Retromedia DVD

I've seen this movie on TV when I was small. I couldn't remember the story's premise except for the fact that it was a Blob like creature that grew when hit with radio activity. Recently, thanks to the internet, I got to watch this movie after so many years, and was surprised to find that archeology was the basis of its sub plot.

Archeologists goes on an expedition to a cave near Mayan ruins of Tikal, and accidentally discovers the monster Mayans associated with goddess Caltiki. Piece of Caltiki arrives back in Mexico city with the scientist which it tried to consume. Meanwhile, a comet is due to pass close to the Earth - the same comet passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. Will Caltiki rise again, this time to end our civilization ?

Seriously, this is one of the best sci-fi movie from the late '50s. I saw this movie before I saw Steve McQueen's "Blob", and the Blob was somewhat lukewarm compared to Caltiki. There's been many movies featuring slime monsters, but this in my opinion is the best. The movie has the monster placed in middle of a pretty serious background where all the actors and scenery looks real. This is what makes this movie extra creepy, and also interesting to watch. To categorize this as a common B movie don't do justice. One of the better movie from the '50s.

I'm not a big fan of fifties monster movies in general, but this one is pretty decent. The film was directed by Riccardo Freda, although he was going under the pseudonym 'Robert Hamton' in order to fool audiences into thinking that the film was an American picture. The film does take obvious influence from the American monster movies and is similar in style, plot and execution; and actually credit does have to go to Freda in that respect as if it wasn't for the awful dubbing, one would have no reason to think that this wasn't an American film. The plot is rather well worked and focuses on the demise of the Mayan civilisation. We focus on a team of archaeologists studying some ancient Mayan ruins when they come across a cave which houses a lake. After diving into the lake, they discover that it is full of gold; although things go a bit awry when they also find out that the lake is inhabited by an ancient blob-like monster. They end up taking part of the creature back to the lab where upon studying it, they realise it could threaten the whole world...

It was unveiled that many of the films which Riccardo Freda took credit for were actually directed by his young apprentice, Mario Bava - and Caltiki is one of those films. I have no idea how much of the film was directed by Bava, but I'd hesitantly say that I think it was mostly done by Freda as the film does not feature much in the way of Bava's trademark styling's; although in truth the filming style is all very by the numbers and there's not a lot of room for stylish visuals. The plot is well done, however, and is certainly more inventive than I thought it might be. The special effects are not particularly spectacular; though they certainly are serviceable for the type of film and are used well. There are a handful of good ideas on display - the fate that awaits a particularly greedy archaeologist being one of the best parts of it. The film tries to a bit spectacular towards the end, and it does work somewhat, although many of the American pictures did the spectacular ending better. Still, this is a decent little monster movie and I'm sure fans of this stuff will enjoy it.