"Phantom from etc etc
" starts out promising enough with a dude in a hilariously ridicule monster suit attacking an unfortunate fisherman. An ideal start to a cheesy50's SF movie, you'd think, but after the cool opening the film turns into an ordinary and tame environmental lesson. We shouldn't mess with nature, you know, because nature will always hold secrets for us and it will eventually turn our own breed against us!! Or something like that
. Anyway, the story continues with more dead bodies washing ashore and they all have bizarre burn on their faces and skin. A tourist scientist and an old-fashioned policeman believe that there must be some sort of nuclear power source at the depths of the sea, guarded by a horribly mutated sea creature. All the evidence points towards the local Prof. King, who's an expert in the field of atomic energy. The overly ambitious screenplay doesn't quite suit the film and the highly prestigious speeches are a bit annoying. It sure ain't no "Creature from the Black Lagoon", as it lacks the stunning underwater cinematography and breath-taking locations. The special effects are mostly limited to close-ups of the monsters, as the corpses are exclusively shown faced down in the sand. There's really nothing else to say about this production so let's mock the monster costume some more!! In case you get petrified by black and white creatures with eyes as big as baseballs, you definitely will get nightmares from seeing this film! Oh well, even though I was bored to death during this film, it still is ten times better than Roger Corman's "Creature from the Haunted Sea". As far as I'm concerned, this latter will always remain the low point of sea-serpent B-movies.
Review of The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues
