Giant from the Unknown

Poster tagline: FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL IT CAME!!! TO HOLD ALL MEN PRISONER AND EVERY WOMAN A SLAVE!!! The monster-horror films of the 1950s and 60s are overwhelmingly similar in concept: something or someone hideous is awakened by something (more often than not, radioactivity, electricity or natural disaster) and a young, likeable bachelor tries to stop it, together with a professor and his young, charming daughter. Then the young guy and the daughter fall in love with each other, the monster abducts her, etc., etc. This is pretty much what happens here. What works in favour of this quite likeable horror film is the fact that it was shot entirely on location (after all, a nice pine forest creates a better atmosphere than a studio with a rear projection and a couple of artificial trees) and the originality of the central monster, a Spanish conquistador awakened from the grave after five hundred years by lightning. I know, it sounds a bit silly, but apart from the fact that he looks like an unwashed and bearded hobo, he's quite an imposing, six-foot-tall figure, and when he's kidnapping a voluptuous bitch, killing his opponents, and gleefully writhing until his eyes light up, it's a priceless sight. His escapades, especially in the last act, when he runs around the woods and throws rocks at his opponents, have the potential to be quite entertaining, albeit unintentionally. You need to equip yourself with a great detachment (which I don't lack after watching dozens of similar monster-flicks), which is needed especially in the final showdown, when the filmmakers give us one truly awful special effects shot. Turning two blind eyes, and in the context of the time of its creation, I would rate it as "a decent, inoffensive and quite entertaining romp". (14/09/2013)