“Go on! Try to use your intellect on me!”

Well the poster spoils the big turnip reveal, but this is Roger Corman's entry into the 50's "Red Planet Mars/Invasion of the Body Snatchers science fiction deals with the red scare through alien attacks." While part of this cold war subgenre, the narrative is slightly more confused, and with it the politics. Even though this is the group that would go onto make true beatnik cinema in all its leftist glory - It Conquered the World is the red scare martian film that advocates killing one's wife over accepting her as a commie. Reportedly the script was rushed by Lou Rusoff who turned it in before leaving the country to attend…

The band Man...or Astroman? samples dialogue from this so you know it’s good. Of course, the monster is notorious and the little flesh bats that shoot out of it only make it zanier, but who’s out there ringing the bell for the equally nutty dialogue?? Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef are just going back and forth with overblown monologues through the whole movie. For example, Graves at one point says: “you want me to condone this reign of terror? To swear allegiance to this monstrous king of yours? To kill my own soul and all within reach? Well, I won't, Anderson. I'll fight it 'til the last breath in my body.” That’s just an excerpt, he goes on and…

I'm surprised to find yet another example of Corman's early work with depth to it. But I'll get to that in a moment, because the even bigger surprise here is that Peter Graves managed to turn out a performance that wasn't terrible! Actually, the acting all around is pretty pleasing and it's really cool to see Lee Van Cleef in such a good early role. The script is as good as it could be, and there are some very well written sections to balance out the sillier ones. I enjoyed the reversal of having a woman track the monster to its lair, and all the soldier stuff was great.

The biggest idea at play here, though, is sort of the…

***OctHorror Fest 2015: Schlock-O-Rama*** Day 4

Roger Corman is one of those filmmakers that even people who hate bad movies have heard of. He's the king of B-Movies and it's easy to see why. He created some timeless classics of the genre such as Little Shop of Horrors, Death Race 2000 and Piranha. The list of people he's touched over the last five decades is immeasurable. So It's only fitting that this b-movie extravaganza include some of Corman's work.

It Conquered the World isn't what you'd expect it to be if you've ever seen anything of the monster. This big dome with claws is widely noted as one of the worst movie monsters in history. And I'd have to concur…

Yes, the monster is ridiculous — nicknamed Beulah by the crew, actress Beverly Garland famously gave it a good kick and knocked it over — but Roger Corman’s IT CONQUERED THE WORLD is otherwise an impressive little science fiction movie. AIP released it with THE SHE-CREATURE, but IT CONQUERED THE WORLD is easily the superior film. AIP remade it a decade later with director Larry Buchanan as ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS, which is a foolish bore, even though the story is the same.

Before he became permanently typecast as western heavies and anti-heroes, Lee Van Cleef (FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE) plays a physicist who talks to “It” — an artichoke-shaped alien from Venus — on his ham radio…

Let me tell you something, do you like monster movies? Anybody? I LOVE monster movies, I simply adore monster movies, and the cheaper they are, the better they are. And cheapness in the case of a monster movie has nothing to do with the budget of the film, although it helps, but true cheapness is exemplified by visible nylon strings attached to the jaw of a giant spider... I'll tell you, a good one that I saw one time, I think the name of the film was It Conquered the World, and the... Did you ever see that one? The monster looks sort of like an inverted ice-cream cone with teeth around the bottom. It looks like a (phew!), like…