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A small coastal village, somewhere, USA: When two locals go out fishing
and are then found with their heads cut off and drained of blood, people
start to suspect something's wrong. Now it seems the lighthouse keeper
Sturges (John Harmon) knows more, but he's not one to let on. He's just
over-protective of his teen daughter Lucille (Jeanne Carmen) and insists
she doesn't go out at night. Lucille's in love with Fred (Don Sullivan),
and vice versa, and Fred, a scientist of sorts, tries to find out what
happened to the dead fishermen in tandem with the local constable (George
Matson) and teh country doctor (Les Tremayne). Meanwhile the local
storekeeper (Frank Arvidson) spreads all sorts of rumours, until he's
attacked by a monster. The local try to come to his rescue, but the
monster's just too strong. Now Fred, the sheriff and the doc try to find
out how to fight the monster, but come out with a blank, so they figure to
capture it in a net and then figure a way to kill it. Meanwhile Sturges
confesses to Lucille that all through the years he has fed the monster
with meat scraps he got from the storekeeper, but when the storekeeper
refused to give him any more, the monster went on a feeding spree of its
own. Eventually, the monster gets a hold of Lucille and wants to carry her
to the sea with it, but Sturges distracts the monster, lures it into the
lighthouse, and dies a hero's death killing the monster with the help of
Fred. Now The Monster of Piedras Blancas is not a good
movie, no matter how you want to look at it, as its plot is too
rudimentary and too clichéed at once, the monster costume just fails to
convince, something made even worse by the many close ups, plus given its
shabby looks, it's actually shown on film way too soon, and on top of
that, the film at times fails to hold its tension, and lacks suspense in
some of the key scenes. But that said, not all is bad about this one, it
makes perfect use of its scenery, has some really atmospheric shots thrown
in, and some of the more quiet scenes at least suggest potential (in
pretty much every department), it's just as a whole this is several feet
far from great. Sure, it's still a treat for vintage low budget monster
movie afficionados like myself, but hardly anything that has left even a
dent in film (or even monster movie) history.
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