Track of the Moon Beast

This is a delightful mess. I enjoyed the premise of it. The characters were all relatively bad actors, but it had kind of an interesting sense about it. People were likable. The outdoor scenes were good. The poor guy just wants to get it on with the blonde with the long legs, but he turns into a lizard. That puts the blight on it pretty well. I wonder how long these movies would be if the characters didn't speak in long drawling sentences. There are pauses between each of their speeches, as they wait for the next line. The sheriff is nonplussed in this whole thing. He isn't one of those horror show sheriffs who won't believe people till it's too late. This reminded me a little of the Giant Gila Monster, an equally bad movie. There's even one of them in the film. There's the folky music, a signature song which has nothing to do with anything, and that dramatic music as the characters made their ways through the plot. If you just want to have fun, this is OK.

Student to prof: "That's a great stew. What's in it?"

Prof: "Lots of things. Chicken. Corn. Green peppers. Chili. (sigh) Onions... well, it's an old recipe."

Note: This recipe -- which bores even the (sigh) professor -- has nothing whatsoever to do with the "plot" of this movie.

I really think a rating of 1.6 stars or whatever is a little unfair. Yeah, the movie is ridiculous, but isn't it kind of fun too? In particular, I liked the very earnest portrayal of wise native american scientist Jonny Longbone. His conviction of character when he lamely jokes about Paul switching from anthropology to minerology (to any viewer's befuddlement) is almost charming. I mean, he plays a character whose name, "Jonny Longbow," somehow TRANSLATES into OTHER ENGLISH WORDS ("Warrior's bow that reaches long to its mark"), and yet somehow I completely bought his performance the whole time. I really found him quite endearing, and was sad to learn that this was the only film he ever appeared in. I understand that a lot of people write these incredibly negative reviews after seeing movies made fun of on Mystery Science Theater, and I think the Track of the Moon Beast episode was great and stands out. But there have been many, MANY worse movies shown on Mystery Science Theater than this, right? The Creeping Terror? The Beginning of the End? I think in terms of characters, story, plot, and visual cohesion, this is actually one of the better films ever shown to Mike and his robot friends. I would normally only give this movie 2 stars, but to show that I really believe in its positive merits, I will proudly bestow upon it 3 full stars. Yes it is a terrible movie, but it posseses a level of cohesive realization that some movies that are actually somewhat good do not posses.

I didn't realise when I put this on that at time of writing it's presently down as IMDB's 60th worst movie ever and that's quite a feat.

This 1970's b-movie sci-fi tells the story of a man hit in the head by a moon rock, this causes him to become the titular moon beast when the moon rises. Once changed he each time goes off on a killing spree and it's up to the authorities to stop him.

As you can imagine this is deeply cheesy stuff and the monster looks like it was made by the crew of Blue Peter, the effects are naff and the whole thing couldn't be anymore hammy.

I can confidently say that this isn't in my bottom 100 movies, likely wouldn't be in my bottom 250. Yes it's bad, but there is a lot worse out there.

This creature feature is one for big fans of the genre only.

The Good:

Neat cover art

The Bad:

Monster looks dire

Daft premise

SFX at the end are laughable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

People need to see more movies if they think this is one of the worst, want bad? Watch Zombinator (2012)

An Okay idea for a low-budget horror movie. Some mediocre, but adequate, acting. A neat monster (especially for the budget). Still, almost nothing happens. A lot is talked about or alluded to, but the film is mainly pure tedium.