Dreadfully Boring

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's kind of interesting to see which members of the cast can act and which can't. The two young leads aren't bad, as a matter of fact. Jeanne Carman, the hefty, young college girl, is passable. She went on to become a kind of groupie of Sinatra's Rat Pack. Her sex life must have been beyond imagining.John Harmon, as her suitor and (maybe) an oceanographer -- the plot doesn't make it clear -- gives probably the best performance in the movie, right up there with Les Tremayne as the local doctor who is puzzled over the mutilated bodies that turn up at the beach from time to time. You can tell Tremayne is an experienced actor because his sonorous, seasoned voice, "speaking lines", marks him as one. Harmon, on the other hand, sounds almost believable, and doesn't look like a dork either but rather some kind of uncanny triangulation involving Mark Stevens, David Schwimmer, and Peter Gallagher.It's a small seaside town on the California coast, Piedras Blancas, with a nice lighthouse run by the heroine's embittered and mysterious father. The actual light house is at Point Conception, where the coast takes a sudden eastern bend, and at the time of filming would have been run by the U. S. Coast Guard.In any case, the whole area around Estero Bay is scenic and the weather benign, and Morro Bay has a splendid pizzeria. You don't get to see much of the town: one church, one house, one store front. Nearby California Polytechnic Institute is a magnificent institute of higher learning. I applaud Cal Poly because it has one of my books in its library, plus a raw manuscript of an article. If you want to see Morro Bay in excelsis, see "Personal Best." I know. It's a divagation. But it many ways it's at least as interesting as the movie. So Carman, Harmon, and Tremayne can act. And who can't? Well -- nobody else, really. But the standout is Frank Arvidson as Kolchek, the store keeper and rumor monger. We have to presume he's Slavic, yet when he shouts his lines they come across as Swedish. Fortunately, about at the half way point, he winds up as a decerebrate preparation.The story makes little sense. The monster looks like a close relative of the creature from the Black Lagoon only more ridiculous. The movie isn't really worth commenting on any further. Some of these 50s science-fiction movies are entertaining and some are unspeakable garbage. This one is somewhere in the gray area between, barely tolerable.

This story takes place in Piedras Blancas, a point located along the California coast. Killing by unknown assailant starts to happen in the town near the light house of Piedras Blancas. The victim is decapitated and the blood from their bodies are missing. Little do the people of the town know, the cause of this incident started when the owner of the butcher shop refused the sale of scrap meat to the light house attendant. The light house attendant is keeping a secret that the whole town will soon find out.Piedras Blancas exists in California coast along the part of Pacific Coast Highway, called Cabrillo Highway about 60 miles north west of San Luis Obispo, and 90 miles south of Monterey Peninsula. It's a picturesque part of the state where you can see endless expanse of the Pacific ocean, and sparsely forested hills of California. There's an actual light house there where presumably this movie was shot. There's no town as such that's depicted in this movie near this point.There is a monster in this movie as the title suggests. It looks very much like the creature that appeared on the movie "It ! The Terror from Outer Space" with some modifications. The story is rather thin, but because the monster has a good presence, this movie is entertaining.At just over an hour, the movie is short, but it's just the right length to tell this story. Not a big budget movie, but it has decent story and good acting. Recommended for '50s sci-fi movie fans.

I recently obtained a VHS copy of The Monster Of Pidras Blancas off E-Bay and was pleased I did, I had been after this movie for several years but could not get it anywhere.After several headless bodies are found washed up on the shore of Pidras Blancas, locals are baffled by these horrible deaths. There turn out to be the responsibility of a legendary monster, which lives in a nearby cave and is fed by the local lighthouse keeper. After the monster kills more people, there is a confrontation on top of the lighthouse at the end...The cast includes 50's sci-fi regular Les Tremayne (The War Of The Worlds, The Monolith Monsters), Forrest Lewis and John Harmon.The monster in this movie looks very similar to the Gill Man from Creature From The Black Lagoon.Although a little slow moving in parts, I certainly enjoyed The Monster Of Pidras Blancas and is rather creepy at times too. Quite good.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

I insisted on seeing this movie when it came out in the 1950's, I was 7 years old. I got to the theatre late and the movie had already started. As I opened the doors to enter the screening room a strange feeling came over me, could it have been that the room was pitch black and 500 people were screaming at the top of their lungs? Somehow I found my way to a seat trying not to look at the screen. In a few minutes the monster comes waltzing out of some industrial size refridgerator carrying some guys head in his hand.....that was all it took....as the blood rushed to my head I did the 50 yard dash to the doors in world record time and never looked back. Decades later (1990's) I had the chance to watch the movie again on cable. This time my girlfriend was with me so I was able to get through it........