Caltiki, the Immortal Monster

This Italian sci-fi/horror film has been mentioned so often ever since I've been browsing the Internet (and prior to that on the occasional reference book) that it had practically acquired legendary status! Now that I've watched it myself, I can say that it's an effective blend of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955) and Mexi-Horror – though it's not as intellectual as the former, nor as campy as the latter (on the accompanying Audio Commentary, Luigi Cozzi also mentions the Japanese sci-fi THE H-MAN [1958] as a possible influence); the climax, then, seems to have been inspired by QUATERMASS II (1957) – while the archaeologists' discovery of footage shot by their missing/deranged companions actually looks forward to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979).

For its miniscule budget (which shows in the distinct lack of extras during a conference held to announce to the world the historic find!), the film's look (Rome standing in for Mexico!) and make-up effects (quite repulsive for the time, with the monster scenes themselves being perhaps more extensive than contemporary genre efforts) are very convincing; the attack by the blob-like monster on lead John Merivale's house (with his wife and daughter trapped inside) is especially well done – and reasonably scary. The cast – also featuring Gerard Herter (an unsympathetic variant on THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT's Richard Wordsworth), Daniela Rocca and Arturo Dominici – is interesting as well and there's a fine, suitably rousing score by Roberto Nicolosi.

The DVD supplements are superb (I'm lucky to be fluent in Italian) and include two separate interviews featuring genre exponent Luigi Cozzi – who attempts, firstly, to restore to its proper place screenwriter/designer Filippo Sanjust's undervalued contribution to the film and, then, outlines Bava's exact function behind-the-scenes (he didn't actually direct any of it but, following Freda's departure, took charge during the editing stage) – and critic/historian Steve Della Casa – who talks about Freda's place in the history of Italian cinema and mentions an especially amusing anecdote involving Freda and another cult film-maker, Vittorio Cottafavi, on meeting one another in their old age at a Film Festival (each thought the other would look down on his work only to discover that they were secret admirers of one another!). It's a pity, therefore, that film buffs unfamiliar with the language can't enjoy the Audio Commentary either, as it's a truly fascinating discussion: among other things, critic Giona A. Nazzaro voices his regret over the lost art of Italy's genre cinema; there's also an interesting sideline into the unusually creative contribution of editors to Italian films during this era, among whom Mario Serandrei (responsible for CALTIKI itself) was one of the undisputed masters; Cozzi, however, mistakenly refers to John Merivale as having played Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN TERROR (1965), when it was actually John Neville (Merivale didn't in fact appear in that film!).

Finally, since Image's DVD of an earlier Freda/Bava collaboration – I VAMPIRI (1957) – hasn't gone out-of-print and, so, will probably not be part of Anchor Bay's upcoming Mario Bava releases, I may well spring for it in the near future along with THE GHOST (1963), an unwatched classic Freda that's been coupled with a German Krimi – DEAD EYES OF London (1961) – on the Retromedia DVD

This is not one of those slow-moving B-Movies from our youth. This is a wild and fairly exciting Italian-made/Mexico set hybrid. Very much like THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN) with a little THE BLOB, X-THE UNKNOWN and THE BRAINIAC thrown in, this is a highly enjoyable little lark. Track it down if you can!

This shocking movie provides great load of screams , terror, creepy atmosphere which becomes pretty sinister with the mound of glop appearing here and there . Set in Mexico , this sci-fi picture has blob-ish fiend pursuing members of a team of archaeologists . As the scientific people in Mexico encounter an amorphous , blob-like monster that shows up to be connected with the collapse of the Mayan civilization. This monster is stripping human flesh from bone , creeping, multiplying, devouring and hungry for the blood of a world . Along the way , a comet from exterior space is due to pass close to the Earth , resulting to be the same comet passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. And at a house and a hospital are besieged by the enormous, man-eating amoebic mass and fast-growing .Will the first life on Earth be the last terror of Man?. Terror amok! Hungry for the flesh of the world! . Towering over Jungle and City... Creeping, Multiplying, Devouring! Man is no longer the supreme being on this planet ! . Now, terror has no shape !. Scream now, while there's still room to breathe. Terror has no shape. If it had a mind, you could reason with it. If it had a face, you could look it in the eye. And if it had a body, you could shoot it. Slimy Glob of Doom Engulfs The World! . Crawling, Crushing Colossus of Terror!. None Can Stop It! Nothing Can Kill It! The Ever Growing Thing! Armies of the World Combat Deadly Menace! Death Dance of the Voodod Virgin! Whole Cities Swallowed Up By Gruesome Mile-High Glob!

A camp classic that was shot with medium budget from the Fifties containing intrigue , suspense , grisly murders and lots of blood and gore , while shocking when the large Glob exploding through the theater screen and the spectators are watching. The plot is plain a simple, a group of archaeologists investigating some Mayan ruins come across a blob-like monster , then things go wrong . The movie belongs to Italian Horror genre , in which Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) along with Mario Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films , this ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . Although being poorly conceived , however being entertaining and fun enough . It's a sleek production with genuine chills , tension, shocks and nice special effects by Mario Bava himself , making an exciting slimy jello invader and frightening and horrifying to the audience . This thrilling film was well starred by an unknown but functional duo : John Merivale and Didi Sullivan , accompanied by a plethora of familiar Italian actors , such as : Giacomo Rossi Stuart , Daniela Rocca , Daniele Vargas , Gérard Herter , Arturo Dominici , Nerio Bernardi and Renzo Palmer as narrator . This¨Caltiki il mostro immortale¨ or ¨Caltiki, the Immortal Monster¨ (United States title,1959) takes parts of ¨The Blob¨ (1958) by Irvin S Yeaworth with Steve McQueen , the latter was followed by a remake that rips off Irvin S. Yeaworth's version ,¨The Blob¨ (1988) by Chuck Russell with more gore and guts than original, being again remade by Larry Hagman in ¨Beware, the Blob¨ (1972) .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Riccardo Freda assisted by Mario Bava. Riccardo Freda used to sign his works with a number of aliases during his career, including Robert Hampton or George Lincoln and as screenwriter Riccardo Freda . His artistic spirit led him to a strong belief in the importance of visual composition in filmmaking . Freda worked in many popular genres, including viking films, Peplum, spaghetti westerns, action, and even Softcore, but it is his horror films and Giallo mystery films which stand out and for which he is best remembered . Freda along with Vittorio Cottafavi continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . From the mid-50s Freda's liking make for atmospheric and colorful scenes of shock began to itself apparent , especially in such Musclemen epics as ¨Teodora¨ , ¨Spartacus¨ , ¨Giants of Thessaly¨ , ¨The seventh sword¨ , ¨Maciste all's inferno ¨, the latter a gripping/horror Peplum and , of course, ¨Maciste in the court of the Great Khan¨, one of his best films . In the early 60s , he was a pioneer in Italy of horror-fantasy films frightening audiences the world over , especially with ¨I Vampiri¨ and ¨L'Orrible Segreto del Doctor Hitchcock¨ as he combined with that wide-staring of actress , the British-born Barbara Steele . He also made adventures as ¨Black Eagle¨ , ¨The son of Black Eagle¨ , ¨White devil¨ , ¨Son of D'Artagnan¨ , and uncredited ¨Daughter of D'Artagnan¨ ¨. From there he went to melodrama and spy films as ¨¨Mexican Slayride¨and ¨Coplan FX18¨ and even made some westerns as ¨No killing without dollars¨ with Mark Damon and signed under pseudonym as George Lincoln . Freda's movies had popular appeal , and were usually commercial hits . Several were French/Spanish/Italian or other European co-productions . He has been called a filmmaker "who brings some style to exploitation pictures", and has something of a cult following . Rating : 6.5/10 , better than average horror/monster movie .

"Caltiki", the story of a carnivorous micro-organism in the Mexican jungle grown to terrifying proportions by the radiation of a once-in-every-seventy-millenia comet, enjoys the same sort of on-the-surface "B" movie innocent schlockiness and underlying dark edginess mix which graced legendary Roger Corman's monster and sci fi work in the late fifties. The monster is a product of nature, however, and probably would not have been a problem to modern civilization, but true to the 1950s paradigm of idiot scientists not knowing when to leave well enough alone, a team of doltish researchers actually recover a bit of the slithery beast to play around with. Of course, the scientists discover that the monster considers laboratory induced radiation just as good as the natural kind. The results, as one may imagine, are not good (but are plenty entertaining for us!)

A scene in which a deranged victim of the monster is devoured outright is delightfully disgusting (the monster SLOWLY overwhelms its victim--pulsating and digesting--and then recedes to reveal a denuded skull). The low budget effect equals even the high tech grislyness of Chuck Russel's recent "The Blob". Not at all bad. I saw it when I was eight and it gave me nightmares for years!

I'm not a big fan of fifties monster movies in general, but this one is pretty decent. The film was directed by Riccardo Freda, although he was going under the pseudonym 'Robert Hamton' in order to fool audiences into thinking that the film was an American picture. The film does take obvious influence from the American monster movies and is similar in style, plot and execution; and actually credit does have to go to Freda in that respect as if it wasn't for the awful dubbing, one would have no reason to think that this wasn't an American film. The plot is rather well worked and focuses on the demise of the Mayan civilisation. We focus on a team of archaeologists studying some ancient Mayan ruins when they come across a cave which houses a lake. After diving into the lake, they discover that it is full of gold; although things go a bit awry when they also find out that the lake is inhabited by an ancient blob-like monster. They end up taking part of the creature back to the lab where upon studying it, they realise it could threaten the whole world...

It was unveiled that many of the films which Riccardo Freda took credit for were actually directed by his young apprentice, Mario Bava - and Caltiki is one of those films. I have no idea how much of the film was directed by Bava, but I'd hesitantly say that I think it was mostly done by Freda as the film does not feature much in the way of Bava's trademark styling's; although in truth the filming style is all very by the numbers and there's not a lot of room for stylish visuals. The plot is well done, however, and is certainly more inventive than I thought it might be. The special effects are not particularly spectacular; though they certainly are serviceable for the type of film and are used well. There are a handful of good ideas on display - the fate that awaits a particularly greedy archaeologist being one of the best parts of it. The film tries to a bit spectacular towards the end, and it does work somewhat, although many of the American pictures did the spectacular ending better. Still, this is a decent little monster movie and I'm sure fans of this stuff will enjoy it.