GORILLANAUT

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS

Jack Arnold's 1959 sci-fi monster flick is the first movie I know of that features that dear friend of pseudoscience, the coelacanth, in a starring role. It is also the only movie I know of to feature the smoking of coelacanth blood-laced tobacco. Where I come from the natives call this "clicker". Dr. Donald Blake is transformed by gamma radiated fish blood (I bet money Stan Lee saw this movie) into an early man/ape who goes nuts on campus. But first, a German Shepherd laps up some bad blood and becomes a sabre toothed shepherd. Basically anything that gets the blood in its system becomes a prehistoric monster version of itself. One fairly shocking murder for the time has him hanging a woman from a tree. Later on he throws an axe right into a game warden's face. It's all ridiculous but a hell of a lot of fun. Pretty much the cinematic equivalent of a Marvel Monster comic of the time, particularly the Kirby "Gorilla Man" stories. You gotta love the fact that NO ONE seems to think that Blake is the apeman despite their identical wardrobes. There's an awesome dragonfly monster as well as an excellent series of clay busts. When the ape man is at the lakehouse he has a very odd L.L. Bean fashion sensibility. Listen, if you're like me and thought ALTERED STATES was way too William Hurt-y, then MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS may be for you. It even has Troy Donahue.