COSMIC MONSTERS (1958)

COSMIC MONSTERS (1958)

Tagline: Man and alien unite to combat the most insidious peril the universe has ever known!

(Sci-fi, Drama, Giant Bugs) [PG]

Note – This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it would probably be a PG even with a few gnarly moments.

In this one, the mysterious Dr. Laird is trying to create a magnetic field. One night during a storm an accident happens in the lab that triggers some humans and drives them mad, turns insects into giant menaces, and attracts the interest of an alien from Planet X. Is he in time to stop the madness and can Dr. Laird be talked into stopping his mad experiments? Their mad I tell you….MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, first off this was an independently made British sci-fi film that actually was shown in a double feature with the far superior THE CRAWLING EYE. It bombed at the box office and was also famously known as THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X. To be honest, at least COSMIC MONSTERS sort of makes sense, but neither of these titles really give you an idea of what goes on in the movie. Unless you want to say “giant bugs” are “monsters” then I guess COSMIC MONSTERS makes a little sense. However, we are never taken to THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X. So that title doesn’t make any damn sense at all. 

Acting-wise we get Forrest Tucker who is actually pretty good in this as Gil Graham. He and his co-worker Michelle Dupont are the only ones with common sense aside from the alien in this whole movie. Tucker is also known for the sci-fi films THE CRAWLING EYE and THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. Michelle Dupont is played by Gaby André who is very good in this one. She is probably most famous for the 1960 movie GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON which actually should have just been called “EMILIUS THE MIGHTY AND THE DRAGON” but that’s another story. We also get Alec Mango who plays Dr. Laird. He doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but he’s pretty convincing as a mad scientist. Mango is also famous for the movie THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. 

Storyline wise I guess this movie is okay. I didn’t hate it or anything and I feel like it could have been pretty awesome with some better execution. Sadly, almost everything is shot at night or in a dark setting and the effects are not just laughable, they are horrendously bad. A couple of 5th graders with a super 8 camera could have made a better movie with a magnifying glass, a diorama, and a few bugs from the garden. It’s that awful. What they could not have done perhaps is get a decent script together or get the cast this movie has. It is for that reason and that reason alone that this movie escapes the lowest rating I offer. 

Honestly, I expected more from this film especially knowing it wasn’t meant to be a comedy, and after seeing how fantastic some other British sci-fi films from the era were. I get that budgets were low and that a big-bug movie was likely to lead to more success in the states than another STRANGER FROM VENUS movie, but with this cast they might have almost been better off just doing that. 

For me, this is a 3 out of 7, and only because the script was actually good and the protagonists were easy to root for. If this movie had been a comedy I would have been a lot more understanding of how goofy everything looked even with real insects being used.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GEORGE MAYNARD PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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