Tuesday, May 26, 2020

From Hell It Came (1957)

A rather odd little monster horror film... the monster in this case being a walking tree stump! A idyllic island in the South Pacific is troubled by radioactive dust and a native prince being killed by the tribal chief Maranka (Baynes Barron), under the advice of the scheming witchdoctor Tano (Robert Swan), for being overly friendly with American scientists...

The prince comes back to life as an accursed Tabanga, a dangerous tree stump. The monster begins to wreck havoc, can the scientists Tod Andrews and Tina Carver defeat native dark magic with science? Tabanga meanwhile slowly stomps around the island throwing people into quicksand.

The premise is fairly familiar though the monster in this case is a bit unusual. The film is slow to get started, the monster doesn't appear for a long time and when it does it is pretty laughable. The low budget makes for pretty shoddy production values but this does add a lot to the cheese value. Don't expect enlightened attitudes to Pacific islanders, but do expect a walking tree with eyes.