This is probably one of the more obscure movies on this blog and maybe it should stay obscure since it's not very good. If you were to somehow travel back in time to the year 1965 and make a crappy shot on video movie it would probably look a lot like this. This was filmed in Kansas back in '65 by a local TV-station on their TV-station cameras and wasn't shown until 1981 so the whole thing has the look of an old news broadcast or maybe a soap-opera. It's a very-talky story of a caveman that's uncovered who then freaks out when he hears thunder and kills a few people. One victim even winds up getting his arm ripped off which was kind of cool plus the hairy reanimated creature guy has a very bloody demise, too bad this things in black and white. The prehistoric monster man is played by a local kiddie show host and I doubt anyone from this thing went on to be in any other movies. Only interesting if you wanna see what a super low-budget TV-movie looked like in the 60's.
This played before they showed the movie back in the 80's on local Kansas TV:
This is Richard from Wichita. I was the co-host on the episode of the B Movie Podcast where this movie was reviewed. I remember watching this as a kid on TV and then again in 2005 when it finally got it's theatrical debut at the Wichita Orpheum Theatre. I was lucky enough to meet Tom Leahy. He was very embarassed by the film and just couldn't understand why anyone would enjoy it. He had no idea of fan base for movies like this. I personally think it's just as "good" as many of those "classics" in the 50-movie packs from Mill Creek. Thanks to the internet, this rare movie is finally being seen by a global audience. It won't ever get a DVD release but I think it's a fun way to spend 65 minutes!
ReplyDeleteHey Richard. I don't live anywhere near Kansas so the first time I heard of this movie was on that podcast and I had to check it out for myself. "Good" is a pretty relative term when it comes to a movie like this but I do appreciate getting to see something as obscure as this and I'm pretty amazed that it wasn't lost over the years. Thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteOh I agree the movie is not really good but it's fun to watch something like this from the past and filmed in my backyard, so to speak. Like "Devil Dog" had nostlagia points for you, this movie does the same for me. And the fact that I tried for so many years just to find something about it on the internet, it added to the mystique of the film. Glad to see people are at least aware of it now, for good or bad!
ReplyDeleteI saw this one and it's no worse than many other made by newcomers of that era. It's ok at best but it deserves to be on some mill creek release etc.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to an article I wrote that was published on the B Movie Man website (this is Nic Brown's site, he's the co-host of the B Movie Cast): http://bmovieman.com/TheBeastFromtheBeginingofTime.aspx
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. There's a lot of interesting info there.
ReplyDelete