The Giant Gila Monster (1959) Review: Endearing ’50s Schlock
“Only Hell could breed such an enormous beast. Only God could destroy it!”Synopsis: A giant lizard terrorizes a rural Texas community and a a heroic teenager attempts to destroy the creature. | ![]() Watch now on Amazon |
Calamity Brains:
The Giant Gila Monster is campy, baffling, and endearing in the way most early creature features are. But it’s noteworthy in that unlike other creature features of its time, this one features an actual creature.
Older creature features, from a time before CGI, relied heavily on practical effects to tell their stories. These traditionally ranged from puppets to costumes to claymation and beyond. And while I enjoy most of those devices, the one employed here is well done: the filmmakers splice video of an actual lizard into the movie.
Now, the lizard in question isn’t actually a gila monster. And it was probably not treated very kindly by the filmmakers. But the attention to detail in the models and sets it walks through still stands out – which means The Giant Gila Monster is actually a decent entry into the creature feature subgenre of the time.
Outside of the effects, the movie was some other distinct charms: hot rods, random musical interludes, and one of the worst sheriffs ever. But that’s part of the fun. No, The Giant Gila Monster won’t be winning any awards these days, but that’s not why we watch it. Instead, we take it lovingly for what it is: a pretty solid example of creature effects for the time. You might want the MST3K version for a little entertainment boost, but fans of the subgenre will probably appreciate the movie without it.
Calamity Brains’ Rating: C-
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