Beast From Haunted Cave, a review

Review by Steve D. Stones

Retromedia Entertainment has put out a beautiful Blu-Ray print of Beast From Haunted Cave (1959) on a double-bill with The Wasp Woman (1959). Both films were produced by director Roger Corman's fledgling company – Film Group. The Blu-Ray of both films also includes additional scenes added to both films to pad out the length for television broadcasting. This Blu-Ray is a great nostalgic collectible, since both films played on a double-bill at drive-in movie theaters when they premiered.

A Chicago businessman named Alexander Ward (Frank Wolf), his secretary Gypsy Boulet (Shelia Caroll) and two of Alex's employees – Marty (Richard Sinatra) and Byron (Wally Campo) arrive at a mining ski town in South Dakota during the winter ski season. Alex, Marty and Byron plan to blow up the town mine, known as the Broken Boot Mine, to create a diversion so they can rob the town's Administrative Building payroll office to steal gold bars in a safe.

Alex employs ski instructor Gil Jackson (Michael Forest) to teach his employees how to ski. Gil is unaware that the group plans to rob the local Administrative Building. The group expresses an interest in skiing to Gil's mountain cabin. Gil is also unaware that the group wants to hide out in the cabin after the robbery. In the meantime, the group is staying in the ski lodge until the day of the robbery.

The night before the robbery, Marty takes the local bar waitress named Natalie to the Broken Boot Mine to plant explosives. While in the mine, an unseen creature attacks the couple and takes Natalie to another location on the mountain. Marty rushes back to town to tell his boss Alex about the incident and tells him a monster killed Natalie. Alex does not believe him, despite Marty describing a giant egg of the monster in the mine.

The next morning, the explosives ignite, killing one old man in the mine. As the town's attention is diverted to the mine explosion, Alex, Marty and Bryon crack the town payroll safe and steal two gold bars each. When they return to the ski lodge, they meet Gil and Gypsy at the top of the ski hill. The group spends the day skiing to Gil's mountain cabin.

While on route to Gil's cabin, the group sets up an overnight camp. Venturing outside of the camp, Marty encounters the creature from the Broken Boot Mine as the rest of the group is sleeping around a campfire. Marty also witnesses the body of cocktail waitress Natalie cocooned to a tree from the monster. He fires several shots at the creature and awakes the rest of the group. Realizing no one will believe him, Marty tells the group he saw nothing.

The group arrives at Gil's cabin the following morning and meets Gil's housekeeper named Small Dove. Tensions begin to weigh heavy on Gil as he realizes his guests are up to something. Alex appears to not appreciate Gil's hospitality and the two get into a fist fight. Gil and Gypsy become romantically attracted to each other and decide to sneak away from the group to a nearby haunted cave.

In the haunted cave, Small Dove has been taken by the monster and cocooned to the cave wall. Alex, Marty and Byron have traced Gil and Gypsy to the cave and are attacked and killed by the monster as they enter the cave. It is in these final scenes that the viewer gets to see the full view of the monster. Previous scenes only show parts of its body, such as a tentacle reaching out to strangle a victim.

The music used in this film can also be heard in another low-budget Corman gem – Attack of The Giant Leeches (1959). Actor Michael Forest went on to star in The Outer Limits and Star Trek TV series. Actor Frank Wolf's most famous appearance on the screen is of playing an Irish landowner named McBain who is gunned down by Henry Fonda and his henchmen in the 1968 Italian western masterpiece – Once Upon A Time In The West.

The director of Beast From Haunted Cave, Monte Hellman, went on the direct two other great cult classics – The Shooting (1966) with Jack Nicholson and Two Lane Blacktop (1971) starring James Taylor. Hellman was also an executive producer for Quentin Tarantino's first film – Reservoir Dogs (1992). Happy viewing! 

Giant fireballs and panic on the earth -- The Cremators

By Steve D. Stones

Harry Essex, director of the 1971 classic Octaman, brings us this low-budget gem. Essex is also credited as a co-writer responsible for the 1953 classic Creature From The Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space. The DVD of this film is distributed by Retromedia, and has a “Bikini Drive-In” introduction by Fred Olen Ray and his sidekick Miss Kim. The film stars Maria De Aragon, who went on to star in Star Wars episode IV in the costume of Greedo the bounty hunter. As an added bonus, the DVD contains an interview with De Aragon.

The film opens with a local native Indian being chased by a giant fireball, which apparently has come from outer space. The fireball rolls over the Indian and burns him to the ground, reducing him to ashes. The opening narration sounds like the voice of Arch Hall Sr. from Eegah. Later sequences in the film show the same stock shot of human ashes being blown into the air after the fireball attacks victims.

Meanwhile, Ian Thorn, a local scientist, is studying the waters off the local shoreline. It is never clear throughout the entire film where it takes place, but we have to assume it is Florida or any small coastal town, since many of the shots show an ocean shoreline. Director Essex shot Octaman in Florida, so this is why I also suspect The Cremators was also shot there.

Thorn finds strange, small glowing crystals in the local waters. He takes some of them back to his lab to be studied and places one in a package to be mailed to a colleague in Michigan for further investigation.

While delivering the package to a local post office, Thorn gets the feeling he is being chased by something. He gets out of his truck, but finds nothing. He delivers the package to a postal carrier. The carrier is later chased in his vehicle by a giant fireball and burned to death. Ian and the local sheriff later investigate the burned remains of the postal carrier’s vehicle. Ian’s package is found but not completely destroyed in the remains.

Later, a local native brings his dead cat to Thorn to try and discover what killed the cat. Thorn conducts an autopsy and discovers a fragment of one of the glowing crystals inside the belly of the cat. He also discovers another crystal fragment inside the belly of a dog he finds by the side of the road. Somehow local animals are eating the glowing crystals found in the local waters of the town.

Although I greatly enjoyed viewing this film, I find some of the plot points a bit confusing. For example, what does the glowing crystals being eaten by local animals have to do with the giant fireballs attacking local citizens? I suppose the connection is that many of the victims find a glowing crystal just before they are attacked and burned by the giant fireballs.

However, this still adds some confusion. Are the giant fireballs attracted to the glowing crystals, or are they a result of the glowing crystals? Plus, why don’t the giant fireballs attack the animals who eat the crystals, and why do they only attack when someone picks up a crystal? These are all questions that enter into my mind as I view the film.

The film certainly leaves more questions to the viewer than it answers. At the end of the film, Thorn arranges a small circle of crystals on the ground in an attempt to attract the giant fireball. Like a hen looking for her newborn hatchlings, the fireball comes for the circle of crystals. Thorn is able to destroy the fireball with an explosion.

If you are familiar with It Came From Outer Space, it is easy to see some similarities to this film. However, It Came From Outer Space is a much better scripted and well-produced film. Fans of Octaman are encouraged to see The Cremators, if only to see what director Essex made after Octaman. Enjoy!