The Giant Gila Monster (1959) 4k Blu-ray Review

The Giant Gila Monster (1959) 4k Blu-ray Review

The premiere release from Film Masters—the new vintage film restoration and distribution company, launched in June by industry veteran and film historian Phil Hopkins—is a two-disc collection featuring cult favourite The Giant Gila Monster with bonus film The Killer Shrews, which were originally released as a double-feature, drive-in bill in 1959.

The classic era of drive-in schlock was near its end at the time, but there remained a dedicated audience for this pair of no-budget howlers from director Ray Kellogg and producer Gordon McLendon.

The Giant Gila Monster (from a new 4k scan of 35mm, original film elements): When two teens disappear from a small Texas town, the locals think they’ve eloped. But soon it becomes clear that something much more sinister is afoot. And if a giant Gila monster isn’t enough for you, there are plenty of cool cars and some ersatz rock ‘n’ roll sung by star Don Sullivan (The Monster of Piedras Blancas).

The Killer Shrews (new HD-restored version): Starring James Best (The Dukes of Hazard), Ken Curtis (Gunsmoke) and Ingrid Goude (Miss Universe 1957), a riverboat pilot and a small group of passengers find themselves stranded by a hurricane on a remote island where a population of shrews the size of German shepherds are voracious.

REVIEW – THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1959)

THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is a low-budget American sci-fi horror B-movie directed by Ray Kellogg and was produced by a Dallas drive-in theatre chain owner who wanted co-features for his main attractions. This was filmed back-to-back with THE KILLER SHREWS and shown as a double feature. It starred Don Sullivan who starred in TEENAGE ZOMBIES earlier the same year as well the French contestant for 1957’s Miss Universe competition, Lisa Simone.

Sullivan gets to sing a couple of songs within the film’s short seventy-five-minute runtime and there are points where you wonder if you’re watching a promo clip to launch a singing career rather than a B-movie where youngsters get munched and scrunched by a giant gila monster (although they used a Mexican bearded lizard instead). Elsewhere comedic actor Shug Fisher is given ample room to display his ‘talent’ and real-life disc jockey Ken Knox, who worked at radio stations owned by the same Dallas drive-in-theatre chain guy who produced this film, gets some time in front of the camera.

If only there wasn’t so much screentime afforded to people to air their respective talents, such as singing and comedic skills, and instead invest time in the titular monster. It’s watchable but suffers from a lack of B-movie horror thrills and consequently even at such a short runtime it feels much longer, lacking a killer hook to keep this viewer entertained.

REVIEW – THE KILLER SHREWS (1959)

Of the two films it’s THE KILLER SHREWS that offers up the most fun. It flows better, isn’t interrupted by forgettable song interludes, and adheres stronger to the traditional B-Movie monster format. With an impending storm brewing in the background (which never seems to affect the island’s static foliage) and a remote island setting this is an absolute gem. Admittedly the monsters fail to convince but so what, they fail to convince also in many modern-day horror flicks too, and with a scientist that sounds like a forerunner to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’s Dr. Everett von Scott and a solid lead performance from James Best (best known for later playing the Sheriff in Seventies TV classic THE DUKES OF HAZZARD) – who also appeared in this film’s sequel THE RETURN OF THE KILLER SHREWS (2012) – this is an absolute guilty pleasure and worth buying this double-movie set for.

The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews are offered in theatrical aspect ratio of 16×9, as well as in 4×3 ratio, on region-free discs with DTS-HD sound (Blu-ray) and Dolby AC3s sound (DVD).

BONUS MATERIALS: Ray Kellogg: An Unsung Master, a Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary written by C. Courtney Joyner and narrated by Larry Blamire; an archival interview with star, Don Sullivan, conducted by author Bryan Senn in 2009; full commentary of The Giant Gila Monster by Larry Strothe, James Gonis, Shawn Sheridan and Matt Weinhold from The Monster Party podcast; full commentary of The Killer Shrews by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney; original, vintage radio, marketing spots for both features, provided by Gary L. Prange; and a full-color, inserted booklet with essays by Don Stradley and Jason A. Ney.

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