Teenage Monster (1958)

Absolutely Fantastic

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This movie came out in the late 1950's when science fiction/monster/teenager movies were all the rage, so I guess the producers of this picture decided to try and combine all three, plus throw in a western setting to come up with 1957's "Teenage Monster". This movie is cheesy, but is actually not bad, if you can get past the "monster", who is not scary looking at all, but instead looks like a 50 year old half man, half ape in cowboy boots and jeans. It's unintentionally hilarious. The premise of the movie is that a teenager turns into a hairy beast after being exposed to a meteor that fell to earth and killed his father when he was a little boy. The movie never explains why the father was killed and the boy survived, and why being exposed would turn him into a cross between the incredible hulk and an ape who mumbles when he speaks and is several sandwiches shy of a picnic.Ann Gwynne plays the monster's mother. She is a good actress, but she is pretty much reduced to scolding the teenage monster and crying throughout most of the movie. Despite these flaws, this movie really a hoot. I love cheesy 1950 drive in movies, and this is one of the better ones in my opinion.

Teenage Monster is just typical of the many very low budget sci fi/horrors made for the drive in market during the 1950's. Most of them were so made that they were good and this is certainly one of them.A meteor lands on a family's farm, killing the dad and injuring the young boy. The rays from the meteor turn him into a werewolf like monster some years later and he now likes killing people. His mum keeps him locked up as much as she can. A young woman is employed by the mother and the monster takes a liking to her and she gets him to kill her boyfriend after he steals $500 from her. After she tries to get the monster to kill his mum and her new lover, the local sheriff, he knocks her out, throws her to her death from a cliff and he is shot dead.The cast includes Anne Gwynne (House of Frankenstein), Gloria Castillo (Invasion of the Saucer Men), Stuart Wade (Monster From the Oceon Floor) with Gilbert Perkins as the monster.This is a must see for all bad movie fans. Great fun.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

A frightening bore, that is. Jack Pierce's make-up and above-mediocre acting can't save this poorly directed, implausible story. Yet another cliche, mumbling child-minded monster is on the loose, aided by his normal mother. The worst of this movie is the misleading title: while cashing in on the teenage monster fad (we all know "teenage monster" is a redundancy) the monster here looks like an old hermit or prehistoric caveman. And the big plot question never gets resolved - will mom marry her son's murderer? The best of this movie (at least it's on the DVD) is the original movie trailer shown at the end - classically and hilariously repaints the film you just saw into a riveting drama.

In June of 1880, the Cannon family is mining for gold. A meteor explodes nearby, killing the father, Jim (McCullough), and injuring his young son, Charles (Parker). Now a widow, Ruth Cannon (Gwynne) vows to continue working the mine. Seven years later, Charles (now played by Gilbert Perkins) is nearly an adult, but has mutated into a terrifying wildman. Ruth controls him most of the time, but occasionally he leaves the mine to kill people and livestock. When they finally strike it rich, the secret becomes even harder to keep."Teenage Monster" is one of a number of films of the 1950s and 1960s that combined the classic western with the horror genre. Make-up artist Jack P. Pierce (better known for work for Universal on such films as "Frankenstein" (1931) and its sequels) provided the make-up for the grown-up Charles. Okay, so the budget was low and the cast wasn't particularly good. I try to make allowances for such factors and give a lot of leeway to films of this vintage. Unfortunately, this one has little to commend it. Viewers who survived films like "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" (1966) with their sanity intact might want to check this one out. Most others should not subject their VCRs to the taint.