Monster from Green Hell (1957) User Reviews

Big Wasps are fun but walking across Africa isn't

[HEFILM · 4/10 · 3 April 2006]

I was surprised at the amount of giant wasp animated action in the film at the start. There is even a giant full sized head prop too. But there seems to be quite a bit of Jim Davis voice over and as the movie goes on there starts to be more walking to get to the giant wasps than there is actual giant wasps. One major character dies off screen in a way that seems like they never got to shoot it. (Another character shows up and explains what happened) Then the ending is all stock footage and dissolves to footage we've already seen. And Jim Davis, as he did later in THE DAY TIME ENDED, explaining it all to us. Thank god otherwise you'd have only a vague idea of what you just saw, or didn't really get to see.

Too bad they ran out of what little money they had. A lively start progressively gets duller. Still that big wasp head was cool, another problem is the generally crappy quality of many copies of the film available which make the footage either dark or blown out. If you're going to watch it make sure you get a decent copy first.

The sending test animals into space aspect of the premise is a bit novel as is the idea of having the space ship crash way out in the middle of Africa and having to go find it. Certainly since the film was made, like with the remains of Space Lab, that type of thing has happened.

Jock Ewing meets Albert Schweitzer and some big old Wasps

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 15 April 2006]

Before Jim Davis got his last and career part as Jock Ewing in Dallas, he had one tortured path to Hollywood success. He had a much publicized debut as Bette Davis's leading man in Winter Meeting which was one of her worst films. His portrayal of a war hero about to enter the priesthood met with a ton of critical guffaws. Still Davis persisted and took any kind of work. The Monster from Green Hell qualifies as any kind of work.

A wasp is sent up in space to see the effects. Unfortunately on re-entry the space capsule crashes in the region of West Africa and the wasp has grown to the size of a Panzer tank. To top it all off the geniuses sending up the rocket sent up a pregnant queen so we've got all kinds of those Panzer wasps running around Africa.

Jim Davis is sent to clean up the mess and runs into a medical missionary played by Vladimir Sokoloff. Albert Schweitzer was very much alive at the time and running his mission in West Africa. No one in 1958 mistook who Sokoloff was portraying. The wasps set up a colony in the shadow of a volcano. You can figure out the rest.

This is typical Fifties science fiction when all kinds of radiation was the explanation for these creatures. In this case it was the radiation from cosmic rays, presumably from the newly discovered Van Allen belt around the earth.

Tepid acting and chintzy special effects make The Monster from Green Hell great cult stuff. One thing though that is timely. An Arab character played by Eduardo Ciannelli joins forces with Davis and one of the natives Joel Fluellen to combat the danger the giant wasps present. Amazing how religious differences can suddenly melt away in time of crisis.

Destination Africa

[richardchatten · 3/10 · 27 March 2021]

Kenneth Crane followed his classic 'Half Human' with this little masterpiece whose 1956 copyright date indicates they weren't in a great hurry to release it.

In order to reassure the viewer that this is a twentieth-century sci-fi movie we get the usual footage under the opening credits of a wartime V-2 taking off masquerading as Dr. Quant Bradley's "experimental rocket". This time the film being cannibalised is 'Stanley and Livingstone', so they all don 19th Century pith helmets and WALK 400 miles across Africa to the Hollywood Hills to confront the giant mutant wasps following the "typical wasp markings" they leave behind them (although they look more like giant termites than wasps and in distress sound more like elephants than insects) that cosmic rays have created and are now wreaking havoc with the usual stock footage of antelopes and giraffes.

At the time of his death in 1981 Jim Davis was a household name on TV as Jock Ewing in 'Dallas' and he is here supported by veterans Eduardo Ciannelli and Vladimir Sokoloff; the latter's daughter played by the soulful-eyed Barbara Turner (herself later the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Where's Tarzan when you need him?

[chris_gaskin123 · 13 November 2002]

I recently acquired a copy of Monster From Green Hell and was after it for ages. This was released on video in Britain as part of the Killer B's series, all now out of print.

A nuclear test rocket containing wasps crashlands in an uncharted area of Africa known as 'Green Hell'. An expedition is sent over there to search for it. But before they arrive, locals are being killed by these wasps which, as a result of radiation, have grown into giants. While searching for the rocket and its contents, the party encounters dangers such as unfriendly natives, several days' of rain, a volcano, jungle wildlife and of course the giant wasps. They eventually find what they are looking for and the volcano erupting kills all the wasps at the end. They could have done with Tarzan's help. He would not have any trouble killing the wasps.

I found this movie rather enjoyable and the colour sequence at the end featuring the volcanic eruption was impressive.

The special effects were good considering the low budget. Some of the wasps and a snake were done in stop-motion. The cast includes Dallas star Jim Davies. This movie features stock animal footage and clips from the movie Stanley and Livingstone.

Great stuff.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Well, at least it's not the worst 1950s monster film....though it does give it a good run for its money!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 15 November 2015]

When this crappy film begins, you see a lot of stock footage of V-2 rocket tests. Supposedly these rockets are taking animals into the stratosphere to see what radiation there does to them. However, they loose track of one ship and where it lands, no one knows. Soon there are reports of monsters in a region of Central Africa known as 'Green Hell'--and instead of sending in troops, just two scientists are sent in to investigate. After a long series of adventures, they meet up with the evil killer wasps and, inexplicably, the long arm of God kills these creatures!!

Much of this film consists of stock footage clumsily inserted into the picture. Much of it grainy and the overall effect is lousy. But what's worse is that the film is incredibly dull...which you'd never expect from a monster film. Cheap and silly---and get a load of those stop-motion wasps!!

Might As Well Miss It...Unless You Are Feeling Waspish!

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 27 December 2003]

Jim Davis plays a scientist who sends some animals, a few wasps in particular, into space to see how they fare under radiation. Alas, some wasps don't return and turn to gigantic proportions somewhere in Western Africa. Don't expect too much from this cheapie, but the film might be better than you expect prior to viewing. Despite the wasps and their infrequent screen time, the movie has the look and feel of a very cheaply-made film yet is able to tell a decent...okay, almost decent story. Made entirely in California with oodles of stock footage set in Africa, I found the film quasi-authentic. The acting was also somewhat acceptable. Davis was decent as were his co-stars. The film dives at the end with some quick resolution to an enormous problem. As far as bad movies go..you could find many much less entertaining and boring. Vladimir Sokoloff has a nice small role as a missionary in Africa.

I thought of something totally different when I saw the title...

[tom_koopa · 5/10 · 7 July 2009]

Monster from Green hell.

I pictured a movie about demons escaping hell or some kind of prison, terrorizing people and whatnot.

Ehh... guess I was being a bit too enthusiastic.

The green hell refers to an area in Africa. An atomic rocket crashes there and causes the wasps to mutate and grow to a huge size. Better call the exterminators! And they come, accompanied by the local tribe.

It's a rather strange movie that didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. The acting is mediocre, the effects are... fine (for the time) and the story is rather broken.

One more thing, people can't seem to scream in this movie. I say go rent, buy (for a cheap price) or download this just to hear the 'screams'.

5 out of 10 stars.

Monster of tedium.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 4 October 2020]

Without a doubt one of the dullest monster movies of the drive-in era, this drags through reels of nonsense where hero Jim Davis and a group of African natives tread through the wilds dealing with savages seemingly prepared to attack them while discovering that the local waters are poison.

Just what is this monster from green hell? A giant wasp, that's what, with eyes that somehow look like truck headlights and crab like claws that strangle their victims allegedly before stinging them. When they find a nest of these things, they attempt to destroy them with grenades and a purposely exploded volcano. It sounds fun on the page, but the pacing is outlandishly slow and the acting barely noticable. Worth a look for sci-fi/horror die-hards, but even the most patient viewer will be clamoring for the end.

A mind-numbing bore.

[Space_Mafune · 2/10 · 25 March 2006]

After a nuclear rocket, containing wasps from a scientific experiment researching the effects of sending the insects into space, crashes in an uncharted part of Africa nicknamed "Green Hell" by the natives, the frightening result is gigantic mutated monstrosities the result of prolonged exposure to radiation. Now with word that these monsters are terrorizing that portion of the African continent, the scientists responsible for the experiment travel into the heart of Africa hoping to put a stop to this newfound threat.

Dull. Dull. Dull. A better word could not be more apt to describe this turgidly paced movie filled with scenes of folks walking, and walking, and walking some more. Although this film is only 71 minutes in length, it feels more like three hours. Sure there's some half-decent stop-motion animated monsters but they are particularly disappointing in comparison to other stop-motion efforts of the era and the stock footage used from STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE (1939) perks things up slightly as well towards the end but aside from those short moments of excitement, well there's lots and lots of walking. Did I mention that already? Did I also mention this movie is almost a surefire cure for insomnia?

Low rating??

[songod-95003 · 5/10 · 5 April 2022]

This is no "Beast from 10,000 Fathoms" but it is also not "Robot Monster"!

Deserves a higher rating. Entertaining.

Ample use of stock footage augments and does not as most uses do seem out of place. Too much time spent on one segment but otherwise a good watch.

This movie entertained me as a kid - but it stinks now.

[scsu1975 · 3/10 · 5 November 2022]

It's hard to imagine that a giant bug movie could be boring - cheap, perhaps, poorly acted, perhaps, but not boring. Well, this one is boring.

Jim Davis and Robert Griffin are working out of a laboratory that appears to be in Monument Valley. I'm sure the Native Americans were thrilled about this. Anyway, these two clowns send some wasps into space, while we are treated to a typical Albert Glasser headache-inducing opening theme. The rocket crash-lands in Africa, and the wasps are exposed to radiation. Naturally, they grow to about the size of Orson Welles. Vladimir Sokoloff, not playing a Mexican for a change, portrays a scientist who goes off to investigate rumors about giant monsters. Adios, Vladimir. Meanwhile, Davis and Griffin arrive and wander aimlessly through the jungle for about thirty minutes of movie time, twenty of which is footage from Stanley and Livingstone. Boring. In the tight shots, we can see binoculars around the neck of Davis. In the long shots, the binoculars are gone, probably because Davis has changed into Spencer Tracy's stand-in. Their Arab guide is played by Eduardo Ciannelli, who specializes in cooking Ziti Allah Dente. Barbara Turner, who plays Sokoloff's daughter, comes along for the ride. Turner has the personality of a box of hair.

The wasps knock off a couple of natives onscreen, and several offscreen. They also scare animals and kill one snake. On occasion, they sound like Rodney Dangerfield passing gas in "Caddyshack." In the exciting climax, Davis & Co. Look on as the wasps are incinerated in a volcano. Stupefying. "Nature has a way of correcting its own mistakes," concludes Griffin. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to filmmakers.

An enjoyably cruddy Grade Z 50's giant killer insect horror hoot

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 October 2007]

A test rocket crashes in the jungles of Africa. Radiation from the rocket causes wasps to mutate into gigantic murderous monsters who ravage the countryside. A team of scientists lead by Dr. Quent Brady (an extremely drippy performance by Jim Davis) are sent to the area to get to the bottom of things. Boy, does this stunningly stinky schlock possess all the expected endearingly awful bad movie vices: we've got clumsy direction by Kenneth Crane, hopelessly fake, plasticky creatures, shoddy back screen projection, gross mismatching with the film stocks (the grainy footage of African wildlife was probably taken from some cheapo documentary), a generic booming'n'bombastic score by Albert Glasser, a tedious surplus of blandly droning narration by Davis, colorless characters, rough, plain cinematography by Ray Flin, lots of talk, an uneventful narrative, and stiff-as-cardboard (non)acting from a noticeably disinterested cast (Barbara Turners cops the top thespic dishonors for her incredibly underwhelming turn as token female Lorna Lorentz). The scenes of the pathetically unconvincing titanic mutant bugs attacking folks are absolutely sidesplitting in their jaw-dropping ineptitude. A real gut-busting unintentional laugh riot.

Radiation gets the blame again

[reptilicus · 7/10 · 6 July 2005]

Ah, the 1950's. If you wanted to make a monster movie all you had to do was insert the word "radiation" into the script and that explained where the monster came from, no further explanation was necessary. Hey, I like this film and I make no apologies for liking it. The stop motion animation for the monsters is pretty good, especially that scene where a giant wasp battles a python. Sadly there is an awful lot of jungle and not enough monster.

Jim Davis is a scientist firing rocket after rocket full of test animals into space to see what happens when they are exposed to radiation (our tax dollars at work!), this will show what future astronauts have to expect. I guess Jim never saw the movie FIRST MAN INTO SPACE or he would already know. Anyway a rocket full of wasps gets lost up there and eventually crashes in a remote African jungle. Let's not even ask why they launched a bunch of insects into space when they want to see what effect radiation has on mammals; just keep repeating "It's only a movie, only a movie, only a movie . . .". Concluding "There'a a lot of difference between 40 seconds of exposure and 40 hours." Jim packs up and heads for Africa.

Meanwhile the wasps have mutated into giants (what? you're surprised?) and are terrorising an area aptly named "green hell". The local doctor (Vladimir Sokoloff) believes the stories of monsters are nothing but superstition but his native pal Arobi (Joel Fluellen) reminds him "Does an elephant run from superstition? Will a bird not light in a tree because of superstition?" Score one for you, Arobi!

Jim and company have to walk 400 miles through the jungle to reach green hell and have to deal with no rain, poison waterholes and hostile natives before they arrive. When they finally do get there it's just them against the monsters and they'd better do something before the big wasps multiply!

This is really a fun movie and I wish the budget had allowed for more of the monsters. The colour tinting at the end was an especially nice surprise.

Now for all you detractors out there, we don't watch a movie called MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL expecting art; we watch it to have fun. That's what "B" movies are for and this one is lots of fun!

No classic, but it didn't "bug" this viewer too much.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 14 October 2022]

Scientists Quent Brady (Jim Davis of later 'Dallas' fame) and Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin, "Serpent of the Nile") are testing the effects of space travel on various animals. This turns out to be unwise, since when their last spacecraft crashes back down in Africa, the wasps on board have mutated into enormous predators. Brady and Morgan travel to the west African region of "Green Hell" both to confirm their worst fears and to hopefully do something about the problem.

"Monster from Green Hell" is no "Them!", not by a long shot, but it's not the worst movie of this kind that you'll ever see. For this viewer, it wasn't so much a "bad" movie as it was a fairly disappointing one. For a movie running only an hour and 10 minutes, it's pretty short on monster action. (That said, the filmmakers, led by director / editor Kenneth G. Crane, subvert conventional wisdom by making sure we see their monster within the first 10 minutes.) Until then, we wait through a fairly long trek through the jungle complete with such elements as restless natives and an active volcano.

The music by Albert Glasser is good, although you're never ever convinced that you're really in "Africa". (This flick utilizes a bunch of stock footage, but was mainly shot in California.) The acting is mostly alright, with Davis as an engaging hero who also utters the frequent (and largely unnecessary) narration. Joel Fluellen ("A Raisin in the Sun") is allowed to play his character with at least some dignity, while Eduardo Ciannelli ("Gunga Din") and Vladimir Sokoloff ("I Was a Teenage Werewolf") do well in supporting roles. However, Barbara Turner (wife of Vic Morrow at the time and mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh) is pretty underwhelming in her feature debut as the female lead; she's fared better as a screenwriter of things like "Cujo", "Georgia", and "Pollock".

The effects in "Monster from Green Hell" are definitely not great but they ARE entertaining, and the final 18 minutes or so are worth the wait. In general, this is a fair "giant creepy-crawlie" creature feature from the Atomic Age of sci-fi.

Five out of 10.

A gem from my youth

[estabansmythe · 6 September 2005]

Growing up in Los Angeles in the late '50s & early '60s, we had "The Million Dollar Movie" on KHJ-channel 9. The MMM ran every night as well as twice on Saturdays and Sundays, giving the viewer nine opportunities over the course of the week to see whatever film was being shown.

When the MMM showed "The Monster From Green Hell," my cronies and I were seven or eight years old. We saw "The Monster From Green Hell" all nine times!!! Up to that point in our lives, it was perhaps the greatest thing ever put on celluloid.

Heck, giant wasps had over-run Africa and only Jim Davis, who starred as the hero ambulance driver in "Rescue 8" at the time could save mankind. Although I've read that the special effects were really cheap, I thought they might as well have come directly from George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic. Those huge, giant wasps sure looked real to us! I recall Viewing #8, Sunday afternoon, for you. A buddy and I were at my house, getting ready to watch it in our Living Room when my dad came in, plopped down into his favorite comfy chair and told us he was going to watch something else, something other than ... "The Monster From Green Hell." How could this be? Sacriledge was being committed right before our young eyes! Fortunately, I knew my dad's Sunday afternoon habits, and Habit #1 was sawing logs within five minutes of landing in his afore-mentioned comfy chair. As luck would have it, sure enough, he was off in Dreamland within only a couple minutes.

Discovering this, my buddy and I scooted up as close to the TV as humanly possible and turned the sound down so we could barely hear it.

It was in this manner that we caught virtually all of "The Monster From Green Hell" for the eighth straight showing on "Million Dollar Movie." Well, almost all of it.

Within a minute or two of its conclusion, the mighty beast stirred. Uh oh, my dad had awakened. With a surge of sudden awesome, lightning-quick fury, he arose, hovering over us like Shaq over Billy Barty, and erupted, "THAT'S IT, DAMMIT, NO MORE GODDAMNED 'GREEN HELL!" With that we scooted out from under his grasp, out of the Living Room, out of the house and down the street, congratulating ourselves as if we'd just won the World Series. For we had done it! We pulled off the impossible, a mighty feat indeed! Risking life itself, we were able to see what we truly believed was one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, "The Monster From Green Hell," eight straight times.

That night, at my buddy's house, we capped our perfect week by seeing it for the ninth and final time.

I have never seen it listed on TV again - and yes, I would kill to see it after all these years.

Floats in a parade

[ctomvelu1 · 2/10 · 16 September 2012]

Lame giant insect movie about irradiated wasps that grow to elephantine proportions and wreak havoc in Africa -- even if the title suggests South America. Big Jim Davis and some fellow scientists are testing the effects of cosmic rays on various creatures, which inadvertently results in the giant bees. About half the movie is stock footage, and the rest of the movie has Davis and crew standing around, talking, or walking about. Plus the giant bees just look plain silly, like floats in a parade. The middle of the movie is strictly padding, with Davis and crew trekking 400 miles across "Africa" (clearly California) to reach the giant bees' nest. Also, it's pretty sad when the only female in the movie is played by an actress you pray will keep fully clothed. Mercifully, she does.

Lame, almost unwatchable 50s horror

[funkyfry · 2/10 · 28 October 2002]

Sometimes numbingly mediocre movie about a bunch of guys and a gal in the jungle, punctuated by giant wasps who attack the actors. It looks like the only reason they dressed the hero in that ridiculous white dandy suit was so he would match the guy in the stock footage, which looks like it was lifted from some silent jungle adventure movie. Really a lot of laughs with a crowd. But, also a really bad movie.

Mutated wasps attack Africa.

[michaelRokeefe · 2/10 · 24 November 2007]

A typical 1950's Science Fiction flick; thrills are cheap and radiation takes the blame for mutated creatures. Low budget indeed, some footage seems to come from other films. But when your mind is set on watching a low budget movie perfectly fit for the drive-in theater, MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL will suffice. Dr. Quent Brady(Jim Davis)experiments with sending animals and insects into space. A testing rocket containing wasps more than exceeds its flight limits, but lands in a mystery location. When giant wasps are reported terrorizing natives near the location of Green Hell in Africa, Brady and fellow scientist Dan Morgan(Robert Griffin)fly TWA to Africa to investigate. Maybe these giant wasps are related to the cosmic radiation picked in deep space flight. Makes a whole lotta sense when you're a young kid paying to be frightened. Others in the cast: Vladimir Sokoloff, Barbara Turner and Joel Fluellen.

Let's forget that it's the FIFTH decade of the 20th Century....

[mhorg2018 · 1/10 · 12 March 2019]

Lame is a good way to describe this. A bunch of wasps exposed to cosmic radiation gets shot into space where it lands in central Africa, in an area called "GREEN HELL". Since this is a monster movie, they become giant, flightless (and stupid looking) monsters. The way this film is, you'd think that it was filmed in the 1930's. The tribal bearers run at the slightest bit of fear. The whilte men lift nothing. The only female character is whiny and basically there to be threatened. As far as 50's B movies go, this is more of a D film.

It's dull to watch the green, green rubbish of hell.

[Coventry · 2/10 · 23 March 2010]

Can you imagine the nerve of some people? What director dares to call his film "Monster from GREEN Hell" and then deliver a black & white movie? How we are even supposed to recognize this hell in between the rest of the colorless locations and scenery? Anyway, the basic premise of this movie is fairly simply: an American space rocket crash-lands somewhere in the middle of the African jungle and causes a plain ordinary wasp to mutate into a gigantic buzzing monster. Yes, of course, that's exactly what the radiation of a whole rocket does to the fauna & flora of a jungle … it mutates ONE … SINGLE … WASP! And this critter must look truly petrifying because even the animals in the stock footage run away. Have you ever wondered what a giant wasp looks like when appearing in a zero-budgeted 50's movie? Indeed it looks ridiculous, pitiable and funny and there's a good reason why they keep it off-screen for so long. Back to the story. Responsible as they are, the Americans send a team to Central Africa and destroy the monster. This is where "Monster from Green Hell" turns into a dreadfully boring movie for an even more dreadfully boring reason. Before the expedition reaches the monster's turf, they first have to undertake a 27 day long safari during which they encounter primitive tribes (primitive tribes big enough in number to fill the entire Chicago Cubs baseball stadium, by the way) and suffer human losses through lion attacks. They're even faced with poisoned drinking wells! Why the hell are there poisoned drinking wells? !? The environmental conditions are harsh as well. The expedition first struggles through weeks of drought and dehydration and then subsequently weeks of unceasing rainfall. I swear, at a certain point I even feared there would come a volcano eruption as well. People don't care about that in this sort of movies; they want to see the giant wasp eat obnoxious characters, damned! Anyway, all this just to illustrate that the mission is half dead by the time they reach the monster and YOU just sat and watched an hour of wilderness documentary footage even though you counted on seeing a Sci-Fi monster movie. There's a funny name for this sort of thing and it's "shenanigans!" The Americans haven't got an idea of how big the wasp monster is and all through their journey they keep guessing its size, unaware that it's about a hundred times bigger than they expect. "Monster from Green Hell" is a hopeless film. I used to think all monster flicks from the 1950's were solid gold, but lately I've seen a few titles that altered this impression; like this one and "Beast from Haunted Cave". The cast is politically correct enough, though. There's an American, a Latin American, an Arab, a black guy and a woman! Too bad there wasn't an Asian and an Eskimo; otherwise this would have been the ideal "United Colors of Benetton" campaign.

Do Not Be Duped By The Title!!!

[Mr. Pulse · 2/10 · 25 November 2000]

I want to make this perfectly clear. I've heard lots of people talking about this Monster From Green Hell film. It's all the rage with the kids today, I know. Well let me tell you what you're getting into with this film. There is no single monster in the film, there are several giant moths, that might be construed as monsters, but that would make the title MonsterS from Green Hell. Also, this Green Hell is talked about, I think, hard to hear through the terrible sound quality, but we never see it, and I'm pretty sure these moths didn't come from Green Hell. Plus the film's in black and white, thus there's no chance of seeing anything green. The proper title'd be Monsters from Dark Gray Hell. But I guess that doesn't have the same ring.

This is a very bad, boring, long, repetitious movie. By general movie standards it's quite poor. Next to movies like Orgy of the Dead, it's damn near watchable. A bunch of scientists end up making giant wasps (Hate it when that happens) so they have to trek through darkest Africa to stop them or something. They honestly don't seem intent on stoping them, nor are they truly prepared to handle them when they find them (A good deal of the crew are slaughtered).

The effects are bad, but you won't notice since the big bugs only appear in a cameo role at best...they're there in the beginning once or twice, then disappear until the "action-packed" finale. The rest of the time we're forced to sit through a rather tedious walk through of Africa, complete with stupid narration, idiotic characters, and some rather racist stuff as well (The white characters get a whole bunch of Africans to do all their dirty work for them, it's really all quite racist). And the white characters, well they can't get much whiter. One of them dresses in white as well, like Tom Wolfe on his most white day.

Racial politics of the fifties aside, this movie isn't much fun, nor is it scary or even campy. In a word: bland.

Padded 50's giant insect monster film.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 5 June 2011]

Monster from Green Hell starts as a rocket is sent into space, scientists Dr. Quent Brady (Jim Davis) & Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin) are being paid good money to conduct research into the exposure of space to living animals, a rocket ship containing some Wasp's has gone missing & stayed in space for six months before crashing back to Earth somewhere in Africa. Quent is worried & newspaper headlines claiming of unrest in central Africa because of sightings of huge monsters does nothing to improve his mood, Quent suspects that the Wasp's aboard the rocket have mutated to an enormous size & are buzzing around Africa scaring the locals. Something must be done. Quent & Dan decide to go to Africa & discover the truth, unfortunately they need to hike through 400 miles of jungle to get to the location of the sightings but once they do their worst fears become a terrifying reality...

Edited & directed by Kenneth G. Crane this cheap black and white late 50's sci-fi monster flick has a bad reputation & after watching it I can understand why, apart from the ridiculous monster Wasp's this thing drags badly which is odd considering it only lasts for 70 minutes. The main problem is that it starts off like a rocket with the mutant Wasp's making an early appearance but then the script slows right down & is padded to the extreme, once Quent lands in Africa the hike across 400 miles of jungle lasts for about forty minutes where next to nothing happens. The expedition run short of water, then it rains. A lot. They are attacked by native tribes & generally just walk around a lot as Quent narrates the story so copious amounts of stock footage can be used. Then during the final ten minutes the Wasp's show up again & are destroyed in a Volcanic eruption, why don't they just fly away? I mean don't Wasp's have wings? Can they not fly? Maybe I'm just thinking about this too much, yeah that's probably it. The character's are poor, there's no chemistry between any of them & not even the obligatory romance between the hero & leading lady. The scientist guy keeps referring to radiation but correct me if I am wrong I don't think there is any radiation in space? The film as a whole feels very dated, the scientific concepts used to explain plot points wouldn't convince a seven year old these days & it really does drag at times with a rather rushed climax.

Lots & lots of stock footage is used in Monster from Green Hell, some of it quite nice & nicely edited into the final film but it does stand out all the same. Apparently some footage from Stanley and Livingstone (1939) starring Spencer Tracy was used. The special effects are predictably laughable, the toy Wasp's slowing move along with little wings which barely flap & plastic heads that just look so inanimate & stiff. The attacks aren't that good but there is a cool scene in which a mutant Wasp has a fight with a huge animated Python in easily the films best & most (only?) memorable sequence.

Probably shot on no money in California with Bronson Canyon doubling up for the Green Hell of Africa, the whole film plods along with no great suspense or resolution. The acting is wooden as expected, I can't say that I personally recognized anyone in the cast.

Monster from Green Hell is a pretty bad sci-fi horror giant insect film that as usual for this period blames radiation, the large amounts of stock footage & the tedious expedition through Africa slow things down to a crawl from which the film never really recovers. The giant Wasp's are also silly looking but kind of cool in a quaint way. I can't really recommend it but that giant Wasp versus Python fight was cool & I had a bit of fun with it, if not much.

WASPS IN A B MOVIE

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 8/10 · 3 May 2022]

I love old horror movies. Everything from the classic Universal creatures to the Hammer films of the 60s. But there is a special place in the heart of horror fans for the low budget drive-in fillers of the 50s and 60s that offered the schlockiest monsters, the giant bugs, the walking trees and more. Watching them as children they were frightening, watching them as adults they are ridiculously funny. But the fact of the matter is that some of them were actually entertaining and pretty well made for having no budget. Case in point MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL.

Scientists Dr. Quent Brady (Jim Davis) and Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin) are working on a space program that includes sending various animals and insects into space to see what effect it will have on them. One of their rockets goes astray and crashes in Africa, a rocket that was carrying wasps.

In Africa, Dr. Lorentz (Vladimir Sokoloff) and his daughter Lorna (Barbara Turner) have had an outbreak of deaths in their area. The autopsies reveal that these natives have had an enormous amount of venom injected into them. All of the deaths seem to have taken place in an area the natives call Green Hell.

When word reaches Brady and Morgan about these attacks and reports of giant bugs, they realize that these were the same wasps they sent into space and lost. Having been exposed to radiation they have grown to enormous size and are now responsible for the deaths in Africa. Worse yet, if they don't stop these wasps and kill the queen they could breed and overrun the entire world.

Brady and Morgan head for Africa and intend to meet up with Dr. Lorentz. The trek is 400 miles through the jungle to get there and they experience every problem possible. When they arrive they find the doctors daughter there but he hasn't returned from an expedition into Green Hell. Mounting their own group to follow they head out to discover just what has taken place to Dr. Lorentz.

Of course we've seen what happened. They were attacked by giant wasps!

This is yet another movie that used radiation turning innocent animals and bugs into giant killing creatures. We had spiders and Gila monsters and ants and even a praying mantis. So why not wasps? What sets a movie apart from the rest is the special effects and for a movie made on a miniscule budget these are amazing. A combination of stop motion animation and fiberglass creations work together to make these giant wasps at least somewhat believable.

In the tradition of all movies in this genre a romance develops between Davis and Turner's characters. The dialogue may not be the best but it does help explain things even if in the most simple style possible. The plot is just right for the running time of this film but it does at times feel like it takes a while for it to move forward with far too many trudging through the jungle scenes.

In the end the movie was one of the better entries into the genre of giant bugs and is quite entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised after seeing the ad artwork. It turned out to exceed my expectations which to be honest weren't that high. Still this is one I'm glad to add to my collection and will watch again.

The Film Detective is showing tons of potential with the release of several films in the classic drive-in category. This one shines among them. To begin with the film is being released with a 4K transfer, including both widescreen (1.85:1) and full frame (1.33:1) versions of the film and the rare, colorized version of film's climax. In addition to that the extras featured include "Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis" an all-new career retrospective with author/film historian, C. Courtney Joyner, "The Men Behind the Monsters" an essay by author Don Stradley featured in a full color booklet and a commentary track with artist/author, Stephen R. Bissette.

Giant Wasps in Africa for those who care.

[Chris J. · 6/10 · 27 November 1998]

Considering the producer was responsible for Robot Monster, this film is not the incredible mess R.M. was.

It's also no THEM either.

It's an average 50's giant bug film. Slightly more inventive in using wasps that mainly crawl around on the ground rather than fly. We usually only see one giant wasp who resembles more dung beetle than a wasp.

I think there is a shot or two in which obviously animated wasps fly and buzz too.

Well radiation in Africa mutated wasps and they are killing natives mostly.

Harmless fun if you've got time. If you remember it as a kid your tolerance for it is significantly higher than viewers not familiar with the film.

It's a bug hunt, man... a bug hunt!

[JoeB131 · 3/10 · 27 August 2009]

1950's Sci-Fi had a bunch of movies based on the notion of giant insects that creep us out in the small version scaring the bejeebers out of us in the large version. There were some good examples of this, most notably "Them", about Giant Ants from the nuclear test ranges.

This was one of the less successful version. Essentially, the guy who played Jock Ewing on Dallas sends a queen wasp into space to see what atomic radiation would do to it, and it lands in Africa, where they grow to be as big as semis and promptly kill everything in their path.

So what follows is stock footage of African Wildlife as filler, bad stop motion animation as filler, endless trekking through the imaginary African Savana as filler. And in the end, the giant wasps are killed by a stock footage volcano that just happened to go off at the right time... Good thing those giant wasps could FLY like real wasps, eh?

What a total waste of time.