Monster on the Campus [VHS]

Monster on the Campus [VHS]
by Jack Arnold

Monster on the Campus [VHS]

List Price: ~~$9.98~~
Category: VHS Video
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Product details

Actor: Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue
Director: Jack Arnold
Cinematographer: Russell Metty
Editor: Ted J. Kent
Producer: Joseph Gershenson
Writer: David Duncan
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 77 minutes
Release Date: 1996-10-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios

VHS Movie Reviews of Monster on the Campus [VHS]

Movie Review: 50's Shlock at it's most average.
Summary: 3 Stars

I remembered this film from when I was a kid in the 60's. To see it again for the first time in about 40 years was a real treat. It took me about 4 nights to watch it as my attention span is now of the 21st Century variety.

You can't take these movies seriously. The plot is still just silly.
A college professor turns into a prehistoric man after accidently injesting the blood of a huge prehistoric carp.

The actors all pretty good considering the time and subject matter. I was glad to notice Troy Donahue in an early part. They skimped on the transformation of Aurthur Franz turning into the caveman. Not quite up to Universal Studios of the 1940's and Wolfman.

Still since it was probably made for Drive-In teenage audiences of 1959, It's still a fun movie. A guilty pleasure. Fun for all.

Movie Review: Good 50's fun
Summary: 3 Stars

I saw this last night for the first time since I was a kid. I intended to watch a few minutes and head to bed, but found myself strangely engrossed. It's not Shakespeare, but if you take the movie on its own terms it's good fun. Some of the complaints you might make -- fairly cheesy monster, ponderous speeches by the scientist -- are staples of the genre, and more than ok. The transformation scene is definitely NOT the best one ever, but it's all right by the standards of the era. The image of the first murder victim -- officially she was "scared to death" -- I found quite eery, and if you have one of those moments in a horror movie, you're doing pretty well. Most impressively, there were many moments when I expected a standard stock response from one of the characters and, instead, the script gave them, surprise, something interesting (and moderately logical) to say. Everything wasn't completely believable -- I laughed every time the fish made an appearance, and some serious convolutions were required to turn our hero into the monster. And the final sacrifice seemed quite unnecessary. But I still enjoyed these scenes -- when the movie was bad, it was still all right, if you know what I mean. All the four and five star ratings here are kind of extreme, but this is a nice little horror film.

Hey, and Troy's performance is far from the most wooden one here. That honor has to go to Joanna Moore, whose non-acting undermines every scene she appears in. But she is nice to look at, and screams ok. And, hey, good driving in that accident scene.

Movie Review: Put Monster on DVD for goodness sake
Summary: 5 Stars

VHS sucks, but this is one of the better sci fi/horror entries from the 1950's. Let's get this and a few others on DVD already.

Movie Review: SILLY FUN 50'S HORROR FILM WILL ENTERTAIN YOU!
Summary: 3 Stars

This is the last film included on the Ultimate Sci-fi classic collection DVD set. 'Monster on the Campus' is a fast paced typical 50's drive-in horror movie that will evoke some unintentional laughter in parts, but it does have some good qualities as well. There is a good well known cast and the special effects are better than some of the lower budget horror films from the time. The best asset the film has is ....it's fun! This is part of a cool Sci-Fi DVD collection mentioned above. The other films included are really good but, having this to round out the 5 films is fine by me. The DVD transfer looks great...very clean!

Movie Review: Get yer cheese right here!
Summary: 5 Stars

Sometimes you're just in the mood for one of those old black and white 50s sci-fi classics, so corny and low-budget, and yet, oh, so satisfying. "Monster on Campus" stars handsome Arthur Franz as anthropology Professor Blake, who has just received a rare species of fish unchanged since prehistoric times. First, a dog (owned by student Troy Donahue) comes in contact with the fish's blood, and becomes a snarling prehistoric wolf. Next, a tiny dragonfly drinks some fish blood and becomes as big as a model plane. And then, Professor Blake is exposed to the blood and, well, you can only guess at the unmitigated horror!

This movie was directed by Jack Arnold and continues in the tradition of some of his other films, such as "Creature from the Black Lagoon" - the script is beyond corny but the acting is so sincere you go along with it. Arthur Franz was the perfect nice-guy who is dedicated to scientific research even at the risk of his own life. Joanna Moore plays his nubile love interest and later, helpless victim of the Monster. Troy Donahue is wooden and forgettable in a small part just a year before his breakout role in "A Summer Place." This is definitely one of those campy "so bad they're good" movies, just right for some cheesy fun.

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Summary of Monster on the Campus [VHS]

More Fifties sci-fi fun from auteur Jack Arnold (director of Creature from the Black Lagoon). The body of a celocanth, long thought to be extinct, is brought to a university for study. This particular prehistoric fish, though, was exposed to gamma radiation; contact with its blood turns a German Shepherd into a slavering, snarling wolf-dog. The fish juice makes a dragonfly roughly the size of a radio-controlled model plane; when Professor Franz gets the stuff in his pipe (go figure) and smokes it, he turns into a hairy, cranky wolfman who wants to kill everyone and break everything in sight. The effects wear off, though, and Franz is compelled to try it again, in the interest of science, of course. When the Neanderthal version of Franz gets ahold of an axe, all bets are off. So.you've got coeds, an antediluvian dragonfly, a primitive, irritable dog, a snarling, ugly troglodyte in a plaid work shirt, all owed to that ever-popular plot device, Gamma Radiation. What more could you ask from a Fifties drive-in feature? --Jerry Renshaw

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