Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The Black Scorpion has a lot going for it: very horrific scorpions, plenty of mostly well-rendered destruction, and an unusual 'natural' cause for the monsters' appearance. The parallel volcano disaster story puts the police and military on the scene even before encountering the scorpions, so we avoid the awkward 'hmm, there's wrecked cars, dead cows, and some weird murders, should we call the authorities?' debate that occurs in weaker sci-fi films.The remote setting, the intrepid scientists, and 'the girl' supply the expected plot/character devices of the 50s sci-fi film. There's too much romantic subplot junk; Theresa has a key role without having to make-out with Hank. The acting is generally quite good, as everyone seems to pitch-in realistically. The characters are believable types who show fear and courage without exaggeration. Clearly, as in the better films of the genre, it's the monsters that are the stars.The cavern scene is great--sort of an extra goodie that adds more tension, more monsters, and another creepy setting. And all that leads to the best of monster movie scene stand-bys: the false hope that the danger is over. With this device, again achieved within the movie's logic, the story gets to start all over again, promising even greater danger ahead.Then we get the 'how-do-we-kill-it?' conference. The sense of urgency is highlighted by the ensuing train attack. Sure, we see a toy train; but the engineer is suitably astonished seeing a giant scorpion on the tracks, the interior sequence does show traumatized passengers tossed about, with at least one survivor picked off by a scorpion as he tries to flee.Plausibility is maintained by luring the scorpion to the stadium with meat as bait. The climactic battle scene at the end works great. The first shot of the 'miracle weapon' misses, the scorpion destroying tanks, trucks, and helicopters as the soldiers blast away at it. Of course Hank gets to finish it off.We don't get much monster mayhem in the streets of Mexico City as we do in the Godzilla-thrashing-Tokyo tradition. But that's ok, plenty has happened already. No one seems too concerned that there might be other scorpions lurking here and there--we have just seen in the train attack that there's more than one. But we are reminded that it won't be too difficult to kill them, as the army now has a good countermeasure.The Black Scorpion has a well-scripted story allowing our suspension of disbelief to stay intact throughout, even acting, and plenty of creepy monsters running amok. Some of the effects betray the low-budget nature typical of the genre, and the romance eats up screen time better spent on the monster v. mankind theme.This one is well worth checking out.

Volcanic activity in Mexico frees an enormous variety of scorpion from entombment in the Earth. The beasts proceed to terrorize the locals, and it's up to macho geologists Hank Scott (Richard Denning) and Arturo Ramos (Carlos Rivas) to help save the day. Naturally, Hank also has to spend whatever spare moment he's got romancing rancher Teresa Alvarez (Mara Corday).You're assured a reasonably good time with 1950s genre perennials Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") and Corday ("Tarantula") as the stars, and with Willis O'Brien of "King Kong" fame doing the stop motion animation of the creatures. Now, granted, it's slow to start, tends to get dialogue heavy at times, and the romantic subplot also helps slow down the pace while the movie should be building to a peak. But "The Black Scorpion" hits its stride at the beginning of the middle third, once the creatures make their appearance. If you're anything like this viewer, you'll be laughing with appreciation every time they make an appearance. (Especially when they're shown in close-up. I, for one, wasn't aware that scorpions drooled this much.) The highlight has to be the big set piece when Hank and Arturo descend into the scorpions' lair and encounter not just the arachnids, but a tentacled worm that was originally intended for use in the "ravine bottom" sequence in "King Kong". Some of the special effects are dodgy, but that doesn't apply to O'Briens' work, which is impressive as always.Denning, Rivas, and Corday are engaging leads who receive capable support from supporting players Mario Navarro (as the annoying tag along kid Juanito), Carlos Muzquiz (as Dr. Velazco), Pedro Galvan as Father Delgado, and Arturo Martinez as Major Cosio. Navarro is appealing, but he's required to play a kid who only succeeds at putting himself in harms' way in his attempts to "help".Not among the best "giant creepy crawlie" features of the 1950s, but it's still pretty good fun, with an appropriately rousing finale.Seven out of 10.

THE BLACK SCORPION offers Fright Film Fans a look at the last work of the legendary Willis O'Brien of KING KONG fame and so deserves at least a modicum of Respect. That said, it's only the stop-motion animation featuring the scorpions themselves that warrants mention: the story is about as by-the-numbers as anything you're ever likely to see, although the always durable Richard Denning turns in another solid performance despite the reworked writing. On the DVD that I saw, there was an Extras feature: an animated short featuring a VERY cool monster with ape-like long arms and short legs and tentacles for tusks. It's all-too BRIEF, but was VERY impressive: it would've made an interesting prehistoric Flashback sequence. Come to think of it, it'd STILL make an interesting prehistoric Flashback sequence- even in Black and White (as I'm fairly certain prehistoric cameras were all B&W...)...

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.