Monster on the Campus

Dir. Jack Arnold

77 Minutes

USA

1958

Starring: Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue, Phil Harvey, Helen Westcott

​**1/2/*****

Passable late 50s science-fiction thriller transferring popular themes and anxieties of the era (radiation, nuclear technology, etc) onto the setting of a college campus as professor Donald Blake examines the blood of a newly discovered prehistoric fish. Upon learning that exposure to the blood turns animals into monstrous beings, effectively forcing them to unlearn their capacity for civilization, Blake is shocked to discover himself responsible for several attacks around the campus grounds. 

While the screenplay takes elements from an abundance of other examples of the "laboratory horror" sub-genre, the decision to place the action into the space of a university seems ripe for some variety, but the narrative rarely uses the environment to any kind of unique effect (though perhaps on a thematic level it could be suggesting that places of education can be the origin point of such irresponsible behaviors that lead to this terror). And Jack Arnold (most popular for Creature from the Black Lagoon) is quite reliable at keeping the picture moving along, though this would have benefitted from tighter scenes and some trimmed subplots. As a result, the film is one of the better and more entertaining examples of horror from this era: a crisp visual style, fairly decent performances, and a few neat effects for good measure (especially a late transformation sequence), which also might be attempting to reach a little bit beyond the comfortably lull of the second picture on the bill. 

​October 19th, 2019