The
killer parasitic blob from outer space creature feature arguably began with the
BBC television film The Quatermass
Experiment in 1953 before being remade in 1955 by Val Guest as The Quatermass Xperiment, emphasizing
the film’s X rating at the time. Not
long after, films such as X the Unknown,
Quatermass 2 and most famously The Blob defined the killer slime genre
for decades to come. Typically
concerning an amoeboid of sorts that slithers along quietly consuming everything
in it’s path with no clear way to destroy it, this particular kind of creature
feature was of course a byproduct of postwar nuclear fears including but not
limited to genetic mutation and feeding off of radioactive energies.
One
which somehow slipped under this killer slime geek’s radar is now coming to
blu-ray thanks to the good folks at Arrow Video, the uncredited (until
recently) directorial debut of soon-to-be Italian gothic-horror maestro Mario
Bava: Caltiki – The Immortal Monster. Originally with Riccardo Freda in the
director’s chair before turning the task over to his regular cinematographer
Bava, Caltiki starts out with a team
of stock character archaeologists investigating Mayan ruins who discover a pool
being guarded by a statue of vengeful Mayan goddess Caltiki who was often fed
human sacrifices. Inside the pool the
archaeologists make a startling discovery: a prehistoric, shapeless blob which
appears to devour human flesh and grow in size in the presence of
radioactivity.
As
you can probably predict, it doesn’t take long for the creature to crawl out of
the Mayan burial site to wreak havoc on the world over. It’s the stuff these late 1950s creature
features are made of. The acting and
characterizations are what they are, dull and not serving up much more than
most drive-ins of it’s ilk though an out of nowhere highly sexualized Mexican
dance sequence is far bawdier than what those folks running the Hays Code would
ever allow. What separates this one from
the pack, however, is Bava’s involvement which not only posits the picture
itself away from the usual fare with leanings closer to what would become the
gothic horror style defining his work but for sporting technically brilliant
visual effects with realistic violence and gore you’d never see even in the
sleaziest drive-in flicks of the time.
While
blatantly ripping off of both The Blob and
Quatermass, particularly involving
one human who becomes physically and psychologically affected by the creature,
the physicality of Bava’s in-camera effects work is still groundbreaking even
now. The gore itself, with grisly images
of humans trying to escape the clutches of the monster as their skin and flesh
have been instantly eaten away as well as a truly gruesome shot of a man’s
flesh being peeled clean from his arm and hand, is unbelievably graphic for
1959. The sound of the shapeless
creature itself, with an eerie mixture of insect chirping and what sounds like
a soapy tub being drained, at first seems silly until the visual effects of the
creature increasing in size and splitting into separate entities stop us dead
in our tracks. Reportedly the creatures
were created using tripe and considering this was a low budget knockoff, it’s
kind of shocking just how much the remarkable work here betters the films that
inspired it.
For
Arrow Video’s new blu-ray special edition, they’ve done something unique. Originally the film was exhibited in 1.66:1
during the initial theatrical run, as presented here. But in the special features selection, a full
aperture version of the open camera negative replete with sprockets on the side
of the screen reveal much of the film was shot in 1.66:1 but most if not all of
the visual effects shots done by Bava were filmed in 1.33:1. This means that you’ll see more picture
information of the soon-to-be horror maestro’s in-camera visual effects than
you did in theaters. While not what was
intended to be seen by the filmmakers, it provides an interesting historical
reference for Bava fans wanting to see his visual effects work in their
entirety.
For
fans of the creature features of the 1950s as well as those keen on where Mario
Bava got his start in the industry, Caltiki
– The Immortal Monster is an inspired little gem and a rare breed of
monster movie that takes the most recognizable elements of established horror
movies and builds upon them in ways we never expected. If you can get past the acting and lulls in
the story, you’re in for a real treat which proves once again the Italians beat
America to the finish line in terms of graphic and gory gothic horror unafraid
to push the envelope and show audiences something they’ve never seen
before. Arrow Video as always has done a
fantastic job bringing this underseen cult classic to the high definition
format with plentiful extras that should keep die-hard horror fans happy for
years to come! Despite the
aforementioned shortcomings, Caltiki is
kind of a splendid highlight in the killer slime subgenre!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki