THE UNINVITED (1944)

The Uninvited Movie Review

Brother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) buy a mansion for next to nothing, but never suspect the catch--it's haunted. Stella Meredith (Gail Russell), a woman who lived in the house as a child when all hell broke loose there, soon arrives, and the beautiful home becomes a house of horrors. This 1944 film is known as one of the first films to take the idea of ghosts and turn it from silly to scary.

This would become a staple too

The scenes such as the one above create a creepy atmosphere, but unfortunately, this is often overshadowed by Roderick's obsession infatuation with Stella--a good ghost story dissolves into a fairly run of the mill love story. That said, Russell turns in a very impressive performance. The film is wonderfully shot and visually appealing as well. The Uninvited certainly has a place in the history of horror films, and its influence on films to come is obvious, but it is by no means a masterpiece. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 6

The Uninvited Movie Trailer

THE GIANT GILA MONSTER

The Giant Gila Monster Movie Review

After a young couple goes missing, the locals of a Texas town, lead by teenage hot rod enthusiast Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan) and the sheriff (Fred Graham), look for clues, leading them to the inevitable discovery of the culprit--a giant Gila monster. This really is the epitome of a 1950s sci-fi monster B-movie. Our monster tramples its way through scale sets, including model cars and a model train, in the most glorious of manners. Oh yeah, it's not a Gila monster at all--the creepy crawly is actually a Mexican beaded lizard. Not that any of this matters of course, as it still looks menacing as it towers over the landscape--except when it is not on a scale set. Then it looks like a regular sized lizard.

Leaping lizards!

This movie will forever live in infamy as a horrible movie. and in many ways it is--the dialogue is absurd, there is painfully unfunny comedic relief around every corner, and the film seems to have no direction whatsoever. That is a lot to sit through for the action, but when the lizard does appear, and we get the scale sets, I laugh with delight. All of this leads to an explosive finale that couldn't fit this movie more perfectly. Should you decide to watch this movie, do yourself a favor and skip ahead to the scenes featuring the lizard--trust me, you're not missing anything in between. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 4

The Giant Gila Monster Movie Trailer