The Age of Commercialism

One of my all time favorites.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A bunch of half-wit Scottish soldiers are bumming around in an old pit while practicing how to use a gigameter. A horrific giant turd of radioactive underground goo monster appears topside at that exact moment and goes on a killing rampage, hungry for radioactive material. Dr. Royston, an expert in radioactive stuff, investigates said monster and devises a way to kill it.If this movie seems familiar it's because it is extremely similar to Quatermass II, which is odd because the script for X the Unknown was a recycled rejected Quatermass sequel. Also, it foreshadows the plot to the blob by a whole two years.The effects are passable and the occasional moment of atmosphere makes it worth it. The movie is set in Scotland but not one frame of it is shot there.There are worst 50s b-movies out there, many of them accidentally more entertaining. This one just coasts by on mediocrity.

X-THE UNKNOWN is a low-budget film from Excelsior (the precursor of Hammer) which was clearly designed to cash in on the success of THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT (1953). With the obligatory American star, designed with foreign sales in mind (Dean Jagger), the action derives much of its interest from the way in which it contrasts the mundane life of a remote Scottish village with the abnormal forces operating within it.Life proceeds as normal - apparently. A group of National Service recruits are engaged in a routine exercise; the locals happily drink at the local pub; while two young scallywags (Michael Brooke, Fraser Hines) go out late at night to cause mischief. However none of them are quite prepared for the shock of encountering the 'thing' that feeds on energy, and appears to be resistant to any human attempts to repress it.The film gains much of its force from the contrast between such shocking events and the matter-of-fact way in which they are investigated. Leo McKern turns in an urbane performance as Inspector 'Mac' McGill, who maintains his sang-froid while people around him are becoming more and more hysterical with fear. Together with Dr. Royston (Jagger), he patiently tries to solve the mystery of what happens.In sociological terms, X THE UNKNOWN makes some trenchant points about the destructive effects of scientific discovery. If Royston had not decided to practice his experiments in the area, perhaps the Scottish village might have been spared. The point is trenchantly made by Jack Harding (Jameson Clark), after learning that his son Willie has died as a result of an encounter with the terror.Shot in atmospheric black-and-white on a low budget, Norman's film gains much of its force from the way it shows how people are affected by the terror within their midst. Making clever use of reaction- shots and atmospheric music, it is definitely worth a look.

I saw 'Quatermass 2' (the film, not the series) once and that had a similar 'oily ooze monster' in it; that one was filmed partly in a Shell (yes, the oil company) location. This one wasn't, as far as I know, though both did come from the legendary Hammer Studios.This is an enjoyable little horror sci-fi flick with some melting corpses, the aforementioned radioactive oily oozer, a brilliant, headstrong professor, some impressive army machinery, some scientific watchemecallits, and several 'look aghasted and scream into the camera'-victims. Some scenes are particularly cute, such as the ones with the mischievous boys and the wandering toddler. And, of course, there's lots of jibber jabber about the origins of the monsters and how to exactly - finally - destroy it. Och!A small 7 out of 10.

Considering it was shot in the 60s, it is pretty graphic for that time. Then again, Night of the living dead came a few years later and put a new level of gore out there. This one is tame obviously in todays time. It didn't age well in some departments. People are used to more by now. Some of the acting also seems very wooden.This British effort is still a good movie, that build the blueprint for other similar (and I guess more successful) movies. The acting is nice and the effects are pretty decent too, although you should be aware that most of the time it's more what you imagine, rather than what you actually see on screen. If you don't mind the age, try it. You might even like it (which shouldn't be a surprise)