The Slime People (1963)

"I don't even want to think about slime people!", 5 October 2007

The Slime People is the story of a band of creatures from the Earth's interior, driven to the surface by underground nuclear testing. The creatures set up a fog dome around Los Angeles and attempt to conquer the city for their new home. With almost everyone else either dead or driven out of city, it's up to an ill-prepared band of survivors to defeat the creatures.

While there are a couple of enjoyable aspects of The Slime People, the movie represents some of the worst aspects of low-budget film-making. Spotty acting, inane dialogue, uninteresting characters, poor editing, bad lighting, poor location and set choices, and amateurish direction – The Slime People has it all. Top it off with no pacing and you've got one very bad and dull movie. And even during those moments when the movie should be exciting, director Robert Hutton (who has double duty as the film's unappealing hero) finds a way to muck it up. The final fight scenes are unfortunately fought in the dark with way too much fog so that you can't tell what's going on.

But as I said, there are some things about The Slime People that I actually found myself enjoying. Chief among them is the creature special effects. They're not great by any stretch of the imagination, but they are better than what I expected. There are a couple of shots where a creature is shown back-lit, holding a spear that are amazingly well done given everything else that's so bad about the movie.

2/10