As a wee lad in Boston, I used to turn into WLVI-TV, Channel 56, every Saturday afternoon for "Creature Double Feature." Godzilla films! Vampire films! Werewolf films! Frankenstein films! Et cetera! I loved them all, except for two movies. "The Magnetic Monster" and our feature today just did not do it for me. Not scary and no monster...not really. Though as an adult, I see the horror in these films were more horrific than the ants in "Them," or the creature in "Creature from the Black Lagoon." Still...can't blame a kid for wanting something slithery, toothy, or clawed. Our feature today is 1957's "The Monolith Monsters."
A meteor falls to Earth near San Angelo, California. A small town. Ben (Phil Harvey), a geologist with the Dept. of the Interior, takes a piece of the meteor, brings it back to the office, and accidentally gets it wet and... Well, the trouble begins. The next day Dave (Grant Williams) arrives at the office to find it in shambles, a bunch of black rocks strewn about, and Ben turned to stone. Uh oh! Okay, the one babe in this film, Cathy (Lola Albright) takes her class on a field trip to the desert and little Jenny picks up a rock and brings it home. Yep, the rock gets wet and the next we see of Jenny's place, it is in shambles, covered in rocks, and both of the girl's parents have turned to stone and Jenny is in the process of turning to stone. Dave, the geologist is worried as is his babe GF Cathy. Jenny is brought to a LA hospital and rock scientist Arthur Flanders (Trevor Burdette) arrives to offer expertise.
Yep, Flanders and Dave find out the meteor rocks will grow and multiply when it gets wet. Yep, a rainstorm arrives and now the rocks are growing and spreading from the desert to the town. If more rain arrives, or the rocks hit a nearby lake, the entire country could become The Rockies. Dave, Cathy, and Flanders work tirelessly to find out how to stop the meteor rocks, and how to save Jenny before she becomes all stone. More victims of the rocks turn to stone and now the town readies to evacuate.
Will Dave and Cathy swap any spit in this film or will the film be as void of romance as it is void of scares? If the rocks had been replaced by slimy tentacle things, would this film have been a B Movie classic we all would own on DVD? Will Flanders come up with an idea that will save humanity? Not scary, but fun to watch. Dave is a hunk and Cathy is a babe, and the story is fairly compelling. The special f/x are fantastic. For some B Movie fun, see "The Monolith Monsters" and see it as a double feature with "The Magnetic Monster."
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