THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)

THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)

Tagline: Every Horror You've Seen on the Screen Grows Pale Beside the Horror of THE BLACK SCORPION!

(Horror, SciFi, Feel The Sting) [PG]

Note: This movie has an “approved” status. The movie's posters try to tell you anyone under 18 shouldn’t see this movie, but I am here to tell you, today’s teens might love this thing. 

I beg of you all not to lose your head, in any sense of the word.

In this one, a volcano unleashes a giant scorpion that terrorizes the town. As Hank Scott and other investigators in town start to look into the situation they discover that we aren’t dealing with just 1 giant scorpion. Soon Mexico City is being decimated by multiple giant scorpions and scientists are running out of time to come up with a plan to fight back against this terror. 

One thing I have to say about this movie is that there is too much stock footage in it. I think that they went over on budget at some point. One indicator is the stock footage itself as well as the fact that the giant scorpions make the same exact sound as the ants in THEM! do. The script itself is shaky but not terrible for the ’50s. 

I thought this movie dragged quite a bit in the first half-hour or so, but we do get to the scorpions soon enough and they look freakin fantastic. I almost thought I was settling in for a 68-minute disaster, but then we got hit with the lead actors delivering lines and the effects.  I don’t want to say they are as solid as the ones we got in CLASH OF THE TITANS, but the scorpions are bigger and effects giant Willis O'Brien does an outstanding job here. O’Brien worked with Ray Harryhausen on MIGHTY JOE YOUNG but was also worked on KING KONG, SON OF KONG, THE LOST WORLD, and more. 

The acting in this thing is actually pretty good as well and it was never a mistake back then to hire actress Mara Corday. She plays the lead female in this movie, headstrong Teresa Alvarez. Corday is most well-known for THE GIANT CLAW and TARANTULA. The main actor “Hank” is played by Richard Denning. Denning was famous for THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN among dozens of other projects. A lot of the cast seems like it might have just been locals in the area, but I really don’t have complaints about any of this. 

This film is loaded with cool stuff I kind of regret not watching this thing years ago, but I have a good reason why. When you look at this damn poster for this movie, it’s rough as heck. It looks like we are going to get some full-blown bad movie where we never even see an actual scorpion and it ends up some lame cops and robbers movie or something like that. I hated the poster so much, for my graphic here I only borrowed the scorpion from an alternate poster to try to give an idea to the fans that might check this thing out as to how awesome it is. 

I have to give THE BLACK SCORPION a 6 out of 7. I do wish some of that dialog was better, but that is my only complaint aside from the fact that the face of the scorpion up-close looks wonky. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF FRANK MELFORD-JACK DIETZ PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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