Creature of Destruction

CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION is another of Director Larry Buchanan's cinematic anvils to the cranium. This time, there's a hideous monster on a murderous rampage!

Enter Dr. John Basso (Les Tremayne), a clairvoyant practitioner of mesmerism and speaker of mumbo jumbo. Along with his assistant, Doreena (Pat Delaney), he prognosticates doom for certain humans in the area. More unexplained deaths occur. Could it have something to do with Basso and his "regression hypnosis"? The police are baffled.

A languid remake of the listless SHE CREATURE, this movie lumbers along, featuring a monster even more absurd than the original! Picture Kermit T. Frog's pop-eyed head on someone in a green wet suit, growling like a motorcycle that won't start.

Tremayne, playing his role with histrionic glee, towers above the other "actors" in the film, who recite their lines as if they'd been handed the script for the first time, seconds before filming started! Not one of Buchanan's "better" movies, it mostly consists of chatter and static. Dull as a butter knife, it saves all of its "excitement" for the less-than-stellar denouement.

Co-stars Annabelle Weenick (DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) as the woman who sits in a chair a lot.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The rockin' beach parties that spontaneously erupt throughout the movie!...

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Produced by Larry Buchanan. Released by American-International TV. Screenplay by Tony Huston; Photography by Robert Jessup. Starring: Les Tremayne, Pat Delaney, Aron Kincaid, Neil Fletcher, Annabelle Weenick, Roger Ready and Byron Lord.

Amateur acting and glossy photography in this example of modern ineptness in filmmaking. A well-dressed hypnotist seeking fame for regressing a pretty young babe back to the 17th Century for the fans has actually regressed her back a few million years, bringing forth a cheap, goggle-eyed sea monster which rips up a few folks. Features the tag line: "There is no monster in the world ...as treacherous as man" -Montaigne.

The film is a complete steal from "The She Monster" (1956).

1967's "Creature of Destruction" came 5th out of Larry Buchanan's 8 Azalea pictures (shot in April 1967, four months after "Mars Needs Women," mere weeks before "In the Year 2889" began May 14), mostly color remakes of AIP features of the black and white 50s, this item recycled from 1956's "The She-Creature," a topical story of that year thanks to the Bridey Murphy case, incorporating mesmerism with reincarnation and regression, which even Roger Corman tried his hand at with "The Undead." The Alex Gordon production was no classic but featured a fine cast of familiar faces, and a memorable Paul Blaisdell monster that was supposed to look female but didn't, despite the breasts. The original took place at an oceanside park, while this remake is set at a small lakeside resort, filmed at Lake Texoma 75 miles north of Dallas, with each shot looking as though it were done at dusk (one unchanged line of dialogue from the 1956 script reports the Creature leaving saltwater tracks despite now rising from a freshwater lake!). In the top billed hypnotist role essayed by Chester Morris (who had a real affinity for magic), we here have former carnival barker Les Tremayne, whose solid professionalism lent stature to many lower budgeted horrors since his co-starring part as General Mann in 1953's "The War of the Worlds," including 1957's "The Monolith Monsters," 1958's "The Monster of Piedras Blancas," 1959's "The Angry Red Planet," 1962's "The Slime People," and 1974's "Fangs" aka "Snakes" (also shot in Texas). Rather than a recognizable face like John Ashley, Paul Petersen, or Tommy Kirk, we get the eminently forgettable Aron Kincaid, who has been remembered as a veteran of AIP's Beach Party series but only did two, "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini," understandably mesmerized by Quinn O'Hara's red haired beauty (he did do a pair of rip offs, "Ski Party" and "Beach Ball," guess they got confused). His unspectacular acting career ended with many voiceovers for animated shows and cartoons (as did radio veteran Tremayne). This final AIP credit finds Kincaid unbearably stiff, looking mighty uncomfortable in an air force uniform two sizes too small for him, in a somnambulistic performance entirely post dubbed in inept fashion. And please don't ask about the inexplicable presence of Scotty McKay, possibly a local talent who worked cheap, who belts out two songs (one about Batman!) before the whole mess starts to gel nearly 20 minutes in (incidentally, the five minute pre credits sequence is taken from the climax, which is conspicuously shorter as a result). Non music lovers will be pleased to note that Scotty's performance receives the scorn it deserves when he's bumped off by the Creature. A Texas filmmaker of notorious repute, Buchanan certainly qualifies as a real huckster like Al Adamson, able to churn out numerous titles despite the dearth of talent, perhaps not as laughably incompetent as Ed Wood, but worth their share of laughs in their own right. Of all his genre films for Azalea, "Creature of Destruction" probably ranks as his least interesting, receiving less airplay in its day than any of the other, better remembered titles, particularly the two with John Agar. The wet suit that doubles as the Creature (played by Byron Lord) returned for another go-round in 1969's "It's Alive!" still adorned with fins on the mask, which were missing in its first appearance (played by Bill Thurman) in 1966's "Curse of the Swamp Creature" (at least the monsters in "The Eye Creatures," "Zontar the Thing from Venus," and "In the Year 2889" were unique to them). Come to think of it, one of The Eye Creatures actually showed up in "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini," but failed to steal the thunder from Boris Karloff. The kind of movie that one used to find at 3AM, a relic of a bygone era, which probably wouldn't pass muster with someone who never discovered it under those conditions.

A hypnotist and his assistant come to town, presenting an act -- real or contrived -- that features the assistant traveling back in her mind to past lives and revealing details of them to the audience. At the same time, a prehistoric monster is ravaging the community, killing beach bums right and left.

Many have written this film off as worthless and a poor remake. I can't comment on the remake aspect, because I didn't see the original. I would hardly call the film worthless, though. I found it to be highly entertaining and a very captivating story in its own right.

Yes, the film quality is poor, and if you remove the scenes of the beach parties the film doesn't even last a complete hour. But the actors are quite good, especially the man who plays the hypnotist -- giving Montag the Magnificent (from Lewis' "Wizard of Gore") a run for his money. Ultimately, of course, Montag is the better character, but only marginally.

I am still not entirely clear on the connection between the hypnotist and the sea monster (a man in a diving suit and cheesy mask). The link is explained at the end of the film, but doesn't seem to make rational sense. I'd explain that more, but I don't want to give away any twists. I would just like to say if you don't mind low quality 1960s films, this one is worth a viewing.

Within moments I was struck with how terrible the movie looked. With a monster that looks like it was made by the Blue Peter cast, random colour filters that looked appalling and a score that made me turn the volume down it was so bad.

Telling the story of a psychic, his subject and a mysterious creature (The very same one used in multiple movies to save money)

When you can't take the antagonist seriously and find yourself squinting to work out whats going on you have to question what the creators were playing at.

Sure it's not the worst of its ilk, but this is one of those that is so bad.....it's bad and doesn't even have that goofy charm to elevate it above embarassment.

The Good:

The monster is unintentional comedy

The Bad:

Light filters are bafflingly bad

Monster is laughable

Music cuts through you like a knife

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Science is jazz

Batman is a traditional party song