The human skull who becomes the monster must have been a regular customer either at Pink's in Hollywood or at Nathan's on Coney Island, because when they turn into a monster, they have a mouth full of hot dogs which the audience is supposed to believe are teeth. In the past few weeks alone, I have seen old science fiction/horror movies with walking trees, giant vegetables and sun-scorched men who turn into demons. But nothing had me in stitches more than the hot dog monster which I first saw over 30 years ago as part of "It Came From Hollywood", the camp documentary on some of the silliest creatures to come out of the cinema. When the movie credits don't include any of the people appearing in the film (I certainly won't insult thespians by referring to these people as actors), you know its going to be rough. The trailer calls this the first "monster musical", and while there are indeed a handful of amusing mid 60's style songs, it will never be in major competition with other monster musicals which have come along since.
The first appearance of the monster underwater, being formulated as the goo from the toxic waste container takes over the oddly placed skull, is very funny, because the actor inside this silly costume doesn't seem to be wearing gloves or boots which match the rest of what they are wearing. This makes it appear that they have human hands and feet, but by the time it erupts out of the rocky waters, it is complete. Hmmm....did it stop at K-Mart on the way to complete its fashionable ensemble? And for what reason does it seem to attack only young girls, although two hilariously drunk guys do get a date with the monster as well. And wait until you see the alleged street gang which invades the beach to make time with the rather loose living teen-aged girls (who look more like the real housewives of New Jersey celebrating their 10 year anniversary) who frequent the sandy shores. They look like chorus boys dressed up as the Sharks and the Jets for a Halloween festival where a Bernardo look-alike fights with a Tony look-alike then looks like he's about to kiss him! There are crotch shots galore of the scantily clad "young people" giving this almost a pornographic feeling to it. To add some massive unrealism, the monster is literally behind two girls waiting on a ride and they don't even feel its presence. The be-speckled driver telling them to get in the car shouldn't be driving, because it's obvious that there is something totally creepy in back of them.
After about half an hour, however, the film starts to become rather tedious and you long to just see the monsters dispatched after several different segments where the monsters do their worst. There's a black housekeeper who practices voodoo (actually, she's the only fairly decent actress in the film), a sequence where the hero races to New York City to pick up a barrel of sodium (giving a nice vintage view of the streets of Manhattan circa 1963), and the obligatory shot of the fragile heroine with her bloody foot caught in between two rocks, trapped as the monsters approach. So while this provided amusement in montage sequences of other similar deliciously bad monster movies, it ends up being pretty boring even with what are supposed to be intentional laughs. All the women but the housekeeper and blonde heroine are presented as sex-crazed females, pretty much domineering of the somewhat effeminate men who populate the beach around them. They should have called this one "Amazon Women of the Beach meet the Hot Dog Toothed Toxic Waste Monster".
The first appearance of the monster underwater, being formulated as the goo from the toxic waste container takes over the oddly placed skull, is very funny, because the actor inside this silly costume doesn't seem to be wearing gloves or boots which match the rest of what they are wearing. This makes it appear that they have human hands and feet, but by the time it erupts out of the rocky waters, it is complete. Hmmm....did it stop at K-Mart on the way to complete its fashionable ensemble? And for what reason does it seem to attack only young girls, although two hilariously drunk guys do get a date with the monster as well. And wait until you see the alleged street gang which invades the beach to make time with the rather loose living teen-aged girls (who look more like the real housewives of New Jersey celebrating their 10 year anniversary) who frequent the sandy shores. They look like chorus boys dressed up as the Sharks and the Jets for a Halloween festival where a Bernardo look-alike fights with a Tony look-alike then looks like he's about to kiss him! There are crotch shots galore of the scantily clad "young people" giving this almost a pornographic feeling to it. To add some massive unrealism, the monster is literally behind two girls waiting on a ride and they don't even feel its presence. The be-speckled driver telling them to get in the car shouldn't be driving, because it's obvious that there is something totally creepy in back of them.
After about half an hour, however, the film starts to become rather tedious and you long to just see the monsters dispatched after several different segments where the monsters do their worst. There's a black housekeeper who practices voodoo (actually, she's the only fairly decent actress in the film), a sequence where the hero races to New York City to pick up a barrel of sodium (giving a nice vintage view of the streets of Manhattan circa 1963), and the obligatory shot of the fragile heroine with her bloody foot caught in between two rocks, trapped as the monsters approach. So while this provided amusement in montage sequences of other similar deliciously bad monster movies, it ends up being pretty boring even with what are supposed to be intentional laughs. All the women but the housekeeper and blonde heroine are presented as sex-crazed females, pretty much domineering of the somewhat effeminate men who populate the beach around them. They should have called this one "Amazon Women of the Beach meet the Hot Dog Toothed Toxic Waste Monster".