Review of The Monolith Monsters (1957) by Dc F — 14 Jan 2013

One night a meteor crash lands to Earth. It lands in the desert near the fictitious town of San Angelo. When it crashed it broke into pieces. Many, many broken shards of black rock scattered all over. If it's one thing you always learn from science fiction, never mess with a meteor that has fallen from space. You never know where it came from. Could be from Mars? Jupiter, perhaps? The opening monologue explains how regular old meteors just hit Earth. Sometimes they disintegrates on impact, but every once in a while one will hit the planet.

The next day, a local geologist, Ben, shows up in the desert and takes a piece of the black rock back to his laboratory for research. The head of the laboratory, Dave, then shows up the following day to discover that his colleague has turned to stone. Even the laboratory is full of shards of black rock. Somehow the rock had multiplied and also drained Ben of a vital source known as silicone. It's later discovered that the best way to combat this is by inserting Saline Solution into anyone who is experiencing frozen limbs or is about to be turned to stone.

Unlike some science fiction where a meteor means an impending invasion (War of the Worlds), this one has no alien being or creature of any kind. This was very different because it relied on an organism that has struck the Earth and is now trying to adapt to it's new environment.

As a short investigation of the crash site takes place, Dave and newspaper man Martin try to piece together the how when it comes to why it multiplies. The sudden revelation comes too late unfortunately when it's discovered that it's water causing it to grow into giant crystals. Sucks that in this moment of truth brings sudden fear when a storm brews outside only making matters much, much worse.

The special effects, which were by Clifford Stein (known for King Kong), were scary in a sense. The first frame of the giant crystals were slightly jaw dropping. Because you have to remember these things grow at a rapid rate when water touches it. So just think if it rained for a very long time what it could do to the entire world! It would look like Krypton with all those jagged shards of giant crystals protruding upward from the Earth. The only thing that was a slight rip off would be the opening monologue scene which must've been inspired from War of the Worlds (1953). Jack Arnold, who was behind 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon', penned the story to this little film. It's almost exactly like 'Tarantula' except it's giant crystals instead of a giant spider.

Unlike alien beings from other planets, this one had a more plausible idea and you have to give it credit for trying something different in the sci/fi genre.