Episode 72: 50's Giant Creepy Crawlers

Discover the Horror

Them! (1954), The Deadly Mantis (1957), and The Black Scorpion (1957)

The decade of the 1950s gave horror fans a ton of different giant monster flicks, but usually taking something seemingly harmless, such as ants or grasshoppers, but somehow, someway, are mutated into growing into gigantic proportions! We had giant spiders, praying mantis, mollusks, and anything these creative filmmakers could come up, just make them bigger and let them loose!

While modern critics, or even those at the time when these titles came out, passed them off as something for the kiddies and not to be taken seriously. And sure, they were definitely made under the term of exploitation, but when you really look at them, there is a lot of talented people behind and in front of the camera, and some really well-made and creative craftsmanship going on as well. Some aspects may seem and are very dated by today's standards, but there is still a lot there, as well as a lot of entertainment value. So grab your can of raid, a giant size flyswatter, and maybe even some industrial strength gloves to wear so you don't have to tough any of these nasty little buggers, and listen to us have a little fun discussing some big creepy crawlers!

Movies mentioned in this episode:

Aliens (1986), Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Beginning of the End (1957), The Black Scorpion (1957), The Blob (1958), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Deadly Mantis (1957), The Gauntlet (1977), Godzilla (1954), House of Dracula (1945), King Kong (1933), The Lost World (1925), Mighty Joe Young (1949), The Monster that Challenged the World (1957), Son of Kong (1933), S.O.S. Iceberg (1933), Sudden Impact (1983), Tarantula (1955), Them! (1954), The Thing from Another World (1951)