TEENAGE ZOMBIES (1959)
Tagline: A fiendish experiment performed with sadistic horror!
(Sci-Fi, Horror, For Some Reason A Gorilla Shows Up) [PG]
Note – This movie did not originally have an MPAA rating, but I am pretty sure it would have been a PG. This movie was also reissued as TEENAGE TORTURE, but both titles are pretty much inaccurate.
In this one a group of teens Reg, Skip, Julie, and Pam decide they want to just head out to some random island to water ski. Upon arriving they are taken hostage on the island and find out it’s being used to test new agents that can turn the United States into mindless workers that will do their bidding (you read that right). I am not sure why they didn’t just send them to college for liberal arts degrees and indoctrination, but that’s not what happens here. Meanwhile two friends of the group who stayed behind become worried and try to convince local authorities to go look for the missing youths. Will they be found before it’s too late?
Oh man, so let me make this clear right away. There are really no zombies in this movie. It doesn’t even really have what most would consider zombies. No one in this movie is dead and walking around. If you want to say they would be “zombie-like” I think that is a better way to describe it. Trying to rename the movie TEENAGE TORTURE was a step in the right direction because at least in a certain sense that does happen, but only in the sense that the teens were locked up. For a teenager that is definitely, torture.
A couple of cool things about this movie was that Don Sullivan was in it. He is famous for THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, but the character he plays is a bit of a jerk. Sometimes jerks can be helpful though I guess? The other thing is that it was shot at The Salton Sea which is a place I have been. I love it when I can say “this movie was shot at “insert place I have been here”. Sadly, as of 2022 in spite of efforts to revive the Salton Sea (which is about 15 miles by 35 miles of highly salted water) via the Salton Sea Management Program, it’s still pretty rough. THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD was also shot in the area back in its heyday. I also thought the evil scientist being a woman was a nice touch. Not something you see very often. I did find it odd that she was somehow working with some anti-American government agency. Typically, your evil scientist is a loner with maybe 1 or 2 really dumb assistants. The mad scientist is Katherine Victor who was also in INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE and FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND.
I found this movie kept my interest, but ultimately didn’t live up to the title or the poster. We do get a few gorilla scenes, but the gorilla’s screen time is only about 5 seconds and he has almost zero to with the plot. The score is actually decent because apparently it was taken from KRONOS, but the lighting and direction are just very horrid. Normally that’s great for a flick like this, but I never really got into it as much as I had hoped.
With the wide world of 1950’s sci-fi movies I have to refer to, I have to give this thing a 3 out of 7. It’s not completely terrible and the teens for the most part aside from Reg (unfortunately) are pretty likable. Do expect a huge pile of cheese if you watch this thing and don’t be expecting a full-on horror flick, or zombies that are actually the dead come to life or any of that. It really is poorly titled.
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