Must See Movie...

It is a performances centric movie

Awesome Movie

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Before I watched this, I wondered if it was called The Black Scorpion because it was a shadow scorpion.Something like the shadow crayfish from Teenagers from Outer Space.Just when I thought that was a dumb idea, I find out I'm right!The story is about scientists studying a volcano and encountering giant scorpions.The entire time they are on top of the volcano, there is smoke rising from the ground.Yet when they descend into it,there is no smoke.As usual, lots of dumb things happen.The movie takes place in Mexico so of course all the main characters are American and there is a parent-less child.The rich American woman lives in a mansion that has no doors because bugs don't exist in Mexico.When the main characters find an abandoned house, they hear what they think is a rattlesnake.It turns out to be a baby who doesn't have a rattle.A minute later they hear a lion roar and they go to investigate, after sitting the baby down as awkwardly as possible.A branch falls off a tree and reveals a dead policeman because that's a thing.But in between those two incidents, the greatest thing that ever happened in a movie happens.The scientist sits down with the baby and mentions it hasn't made a sound and then he says the greatest thing ever.Keep in mind this guy is at least 50 years old.He says "If I ever have any of my own I think I'll feed them beans and tortillas too.Then I'll be able to get some sleep nights".What?!?! That asks so many questions.Does he think Mexicans only eat beans and tortillas?Do they only eat beans and tortillas?Does he think beans and tortillas keep babies quiet?Just Mexican babies?All Mexicans?Does he think a baby being quiet for one minute is a long time?Does he think he will really have a baby now if he hasn't yet?That scene earned this terrible movie a second star.

If you have an interest in movie special effects, particularly those made during the 1950s, "The Black Scorpion" will probably be of interest to you. The main selling point of the movie is that the special effects were done by the legendary Willis O'Brien. Even by today's standards, the stop motion special effects look really good for the most part, especially since it's obvious that O'Brien wasn't working with a lavish budget. Indeed, towards the end of the movie, the money seemed to be running out, because we get footage reused as well as some really tacky superimposed scorpions that we can see through. The limited budget also often shows in the scenes that don't involve special effects, even though the movie was shot in Mexico to cut costs. Actually, the main problem with the movie is that outside of the scorpion scenes, it's sometimes dull and lacking considerable tension. To see how the drama should have been done between the special effects, the giant ant movie "Them!" well illustrates this. While "Them!" is a much better movie, if you really want to see this sort of thing again, "The Black Scorpion" will do if you are desperate.

I caught this movie on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was almost a pretty good movie, not in the same class with others the gang of the Satellite of Love have riffed. This film features pretty good monster effects for the time and an interesting premise. The thing that drags the film into the not all that good realm is the lack of anything really going on anytime the scorpions are not on the screen and terrorizing the locals. Which happens a lot, unfortunately. Making the scenes where there is nothing going on but speculation drag on. Add an annoying child and a pointless love story arc and at times you almost forget there are killer scorpions on the rampage. Heck, near the end the film seems like it is wrapping up and we finally get the scorpions coming back and staging their final assault.The story has a volcanic eruption that causes a lot of damage to a small town. Well, not only does it cause destruction by the typical way a volcano causes damage it also unleashes something horrific...giant scorpions! A couple of scientist guys try to figure a way to stop this horde of arachnids from their reign of terror and it soon leads them to a hole that takes them to the very depths of the earth where even more horrors await them and their sidekick annoying child who just wanted to help.This movie was featured on Mystery Science Theater during their first season. I usually find the first season episodes to be a bit weak, but this was one of the strongest ones. It helps that the film is not too terribly bad...I actually think that a almost good or okay film works just as well for riffing as does a completely horrid film, sometimes they work better. You get into the film a bit and then something stupid does happen and they catch it and it enhances it.So this film was not terrible, just nothing good either. I like the whole cave portion of the film and when scorpions were on the attack, but the other aspects of the story were simply too weak and too much like things we had seen countless times before. The opening reminded me of, Beginning of the End and other films of the giant bug genre. The monsters looked good most of the time, but there were times they simply looked bad when you could see through them. So a bit of work, and this one could have been pretty good, but as it is, a rather nice episode of MST3K.

The only "Big Bug" movie of the fifties to use stop-motion animation (supervised by King Kong's Willis O'Brien). All the others opted for real insects or large caricatures with varying results.Once things get going, there are a goodly amount of monster scenes that range from outstanding and atmospheric to cheap and superficial. The non effects remainder of the movie is typical tripe with a rather lacking love interest and a little boy who intrudes incessantly. The Mexican locale is used to effect with some creepy sets and landmark inclusions. Of course the real star is the title character and assorted crawlers . They don't disappoint. The middle staging of the descent underground and the train wreck sequence are remarkable and the finale, while a bit contrived, is done with low-budget luminosity.Categorically the film stands ahead of its contemporaries and is an overlooked work that while restricted by its production, can stand proudly as a unique undertaking that looks quite classy and is different enough to elevate the movie to cult status. Mostly ignored by casual purveyors of the Sci-Fi pictures of the era.