Night Of The Blood Beast ( 1958 )

Classic Roger Corman

Back in the long, hot summer of 1958, drive-in audiences prepared to sleep, spoon or snuggle through Night of the Blood Beast and its various co-features. But by the time this chilling exercise in alien terror unspooled, the average movie-goer´s blood vessels burst with suspense.

Based on Gene Corman´s classic sci-fi tale Creature From Galaxy 27, blessed with a taut screenplay by scribe Martin Varno (who went on to a successful career as a make-up artist) this tour-de-force is directed with razor-edged precision by Bernard Kowalski, whose ability to create tension in confined spaces foreshadows his later efforts like Attack of the Giant Leeches and Baywatch Nights.

In the film, a returning astronaut crash-lands his rocket in the mountain ranges near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Believed dead on impact, the brave space traveler´s body is escorted back to the lab, where it soon returns to life! But with a catch: he´s infested - pregnant with the spawn of a bloodthirsty alien creature. And that alien creature is wandering around outside, thirsting for blood.

This concept, hinted at in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and used as a shock device decades later in Alien, provoked violent, fear-stained reactions in the staid audiences of the 1950s...which may be the reason for the film´s subsequent rarity, as it plays like nothing so much as a brutal episode of the Outer Limits, but with more terror, more gore, more blood-spitting tension. Primarily unseen in any real sense since the early 60s, Night of the Blood Beast remains the one missing cinematic footnote in American science fiction history, a film searched for by collectors since its original drive-in and television runs.

RetroMedia has used a variety of film elements to remain true to the director´s original vision, not the least of which was restoring the film to its original black and white. Produced by Gene and Roger Corman, starring Ed Nelson and Michael Emmet, filmed in Hollywood´s Griffith Park and Bronson Canyon, and featuring the most terrifying alien creature since Roger Corman´s Teenage Caveman.

Regissör:	Bernard Kowalski
Skådespelare:	Ed Nelson, Michael Emmett
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Bild:	1.33:1 FullScreen
Ljud:	Engelska DD Stereo
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Längd:	62 Minuter
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Skivor:	1
Region:	1