B Movies

Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, The

Ray Bradbury story-turned-movie was one of the first atomic monster movies and is widely credited as one of the inspirations for Godzilla, the most famous atomic monster of them all. Ray Harryhausen provided the film's animation effects.

Beast of Hollow Mountain, The

American cowboy Jimmy Ryan thinks his disappearing cattle are being rustled, or worse. Unfortunately for Jimmy, the real culprit is a 30-foot tall dinosaur living in the swamp near his land. Watch as our rancher hero tries to get rid of the monster himself!

Beginning of the End

Bert I. Gordon was a man in love with all things giant, and Beginning of the End was one of the first films that proved he could put them on screen. Perhaps he didn't put them on screen terribly well – at times the atomically-enlarged locusts that threaten mankind in the movie don't seem to be climbing buildings so much as defying all laws of physics – but at least he pursued his vision fearlessly. Peter Graves stars as Dr. Wainright, the scientist hero who must find a way to lure the locusts away from Chicago before the Army resorts to nuking the city. (!)

Beneath Loch Ness

Shot in California, this alleged thriller follows a group of scientists and documentary filmmakers (who never use cameras!) who are looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Or not. They seem pretty surprised when they find a monster in Loch Ness, and it's killing people. But maybe the monster in Loch Ness that is killing people isn't the Loch Ness Monster. Slow and poorly made, you probably won't care. The bottom line is that there's a plesiosaur and some sort of large mosasaur both living in the lake.

Beware! The Blob

Tongue-in-cheek sequel to the original The Blob features the gelatinous monster's return from the Arctic wastes where it was left at the end of the last film. This installment was filmed by Larry "J.R." Hagman in high '70s style, by which we mean there is no joke too low-brow, no sight gag too cheap, and no potential victim too sacred for the Blob to consume. Before the movie is over our antagonist will have absorbed a kitten, a wheelchair-bound priest, and an entire bowling alley. Cameos by the likes Burgess Meredith and Cindy Williams should give you some idea of the low-end Hollywood clout Hagman had at the time. Hagman himself even appears briefly as a hobo.

Reviews: Stomp Tokyo

Black Scorpion, The

Enormous scorpions emerge from volcanoes to rule their Mexican playground. Director Ludwig was known for adventure stories, but he also directed Big Jim McClain the hilariously bad anti-Communist film set in Hawaii and starring John Wayne in the title role.

Blob, The

A remarkable depth of character development and some earnest acting make The Blob not only enjoyable as a monster flick, but also quite respectable as a movie in its own right. From the poster you might expect only the typical b-movie in which a bunch of bumpkin schoolkids discover a monster. Ten minutes of staring into Steve McQueen's baby blues, however, will probably convince even those whose eschew scary movies to hang around.

McQueen (who was 28 when The Blob was made) plays the high school kid named Steve who brings an old man to the town doctor. The "old timer" (Olin Howlin, who was also in another classic giant monster movie, Them!) is the unfortunate first victim of a gelatinous mass that arrived on Earth inside a meteorite. The Blob "consumes flesh on contact, like an acid" and pretty soon it has eaten the old man, the doctor, and the attending nurse. Steve tries to convince the town police that there's a monster on the loose, but naturally the Blob has moved on by the time they arrive to investigate. The goofy theme song "Beware the Blob!" and images of movie-theater patrons fleeing before the enormous quantities of pink goo have become legendary in monster fandom.

A semi-sequel was made by Larry Hagman in 1972 (Beware! The Blob), and a gorier remake (which is actually well-regarded by some) was made in 1988.

Reviews: Attack of the 50 Foot DVD.

Blob, The

In this remake of the classic The Blob (1958) the eponymous goo drops from space into the woods near a mountain town aboard a manmade satellite. The blob grows quickly and kills a variety of town people in various horrific ways. A new wrinkle is added to the plot when the U.S. military quarantines the town, allegedly to keep the blob from escaping – or is there a darker motive?

The Blob is a good updating of the original movie, with some good twists on what was a simple story. The special effects are good, and the way the blob is neutralized is clever. Be warned though, this movie was made when splatter movies were at the height of their popularity, so some of the deaths are very grotesque.

Blood Surf

A camera crew in Australia to film a new extreme sport called blood surfing (basically, they surf with sharks) is stalked by a giant saltwater crocodile. The characters in this movie are even dumber and more annoying than usual for these films. As a matter of fact at one point some characters root for the croc to eat another character. The giant reptile is portrayed with decidedly old school methods, with a hand puppet doing heavy duty.

Boa

A giant prehistoric snake has accidently been released from hibernation and is snaking on guards and prisoners at a new "escape proof" prison 12,000 feet beneath Antartica. Time to call Dean Cain, playing a professor of paleo-herpetology, to come in and save the day. Even as giant snake movies go this one is pretty silly, but it does have some pretty good special effects.

Boa vs. Python

At one point in Boa vs. Python a marine scientist played by Playboy Playmate Jamie Bergman yells, "I'm dying to know what kind of situation could possibly require the use of his boa and my implants!" This is the kind of movie where you're not sure if that was meant to be a joke.

Despite the title implying that this is crossover between the Dean Cain vehicle Boa (2002) and the Python series of films, the connections are not obvious. A rich big game hunter with his own computer generated 747 has bought a giant snake in Russia with the intent of releasing it on his property and having a bunch of rich guys help him hunt it. His plan goes awry when the snake escapes near Philadelphia, but the hunter just moves the hunt.

Meanwhile the CIA takes an interest and, apparently having turned the project over the Department of Wacky Plans, decides to have a marine biologist (Bergman) wire up a giant boa bred by a herpetologist (Helwett) for sound and picture and let it go in the same area as the python, apparently because the boa will naturally hunt the python down. Was there no giant mongoose available?