Night of the Blood Beast (1958)

1958. A good year for 60 minute movies. I get so much joy watching this kind of thing. And look how cool the movie poster is!

Everybody seems so serious and like they know exactly what is going on. The doctor mumbo jumbo of internal rupture and hyper metabolism, dying brain, and everything else makes me wish I was taking better notes for my next sci fi book. And nothing looks tougher than a guy on a radio trying to get a message out, while having a smoke (ala Sterling Hayden in Zero Hour.... fantastic movie!!). Now to showcase a movie with only 6 actors and 2 sets for filming.

Okay, what's going on... a guy goes into space then crashes on the way back to Earth. He's dead in the crash, but is he? Medical people and a radio guy work together to put the pieces together, and can't get any help. They're very thorough people though, checking and rechecking and smoking cigarettes. They're all wicked smart and use big words, like incommunicado. And there's a monster loose.

I can't remember any names of these characters.

Static electricity net force fields kill power. Serious stuff. It's happened before. So dang serious. Well, these are the kinds of issues faced in Night of the Blood Beast.

Here you go, lines like this: "He alone stood on the threshold of our future. What happened to him today, we may learn more than we've ever known. Maybe I should just listen." I wish I could come up with stuff like this! It's pure inspiration. And the scientist who says it, does so while giving a back rub. Film gold.

So 30 min in, the science talk is mostly done and a doctor gets murdered. And the astronaut is awake, but he's all messed up and confused. Oh my goodness, everybody starts realizing stuff and it's serious! And intense! And nobody understands! This can't happen, but it has happened! Something... something.... probably an alien? Oh no. The astronaut was impregnated with baby alien sea horses.

The creature shows up looking like a pile of moss melded with the abominable snow man and a bird goblin thing. And it's there to nourish the baby aliens inside the astronaut. We need more science talk to come up with ideas. Kill the alien? Save it? What is up with astronaut?

It's all about the unknown now. Unknown if the creature is good or bad. Unknown if the astronaut and scientist can still get married since astronaut might be a zombie and scientist might kinda like one of the soldier guys. Unknown why the monster may or may not have killed the scientist guy earlier but not the lady hostage it captured. Unknown where the magnetic disturbance comes from. Unknown if the creature and astronaut are linked up. Unknown what will happen out there. Unknown how to communicate with the creature. Just lots and lots of unknowns.

In the end, only violence can solve problems. I give credit to the astronaut for trying other methods, like communicado, before killing himself to kill all the alien babies. Had to be done. Once that's over with, the soldier guys are free to molotov cocktail the big bad monster. The end. 

I still don't know why the monster killed the older scientist, but I did fall asleep for a few minutes. Oh well. Good movie but glad it was only an hour.