The Slime People

Customer Reviews:

CAMPY 50'S STYLE SCI-FI JUST THE WAY I LIKE EM!.......2007-03-08

First off, I would like to say I had not seen this film in years before buying this DVD version. My copy had no audio or video problems like some have stated in their reviews. I know this is not considered a good movie,but for some reason I like it! It is silly and the Slime People choking at the end is hysterical. When they fall to the ground I expected the poor creatures to kick their legs in the air! LOL! All I know is there are some nights I'm up late and this goofy old stuff is just what the doctor orderd for me.

Horribly Entertaining But Somehow Charming.......2005-08-13

My teenage daughter said she was bored after watching Amadeus and wanted to see something more upbeat. After reading the back of video boxes, many video and DVD boxes she seemed very taken with this one. "2 shapely daughters", really got her interested and as I rewound this epic she speculated aloud just what those two charming daughters might be like and what heroic things they might do. Well, she was not disappointed and though I was a bit tired of this flick after 50 minutes she begged to see the last 26 minutes.

Is it interesting? Well, she compared the format to "The Night of The Living Dead", where the poor isolated "Normal" humans get surrounded by monsters shrouded in darkness and mystery and in this case quite a bit of fog. Also, 2 men and two shapely women as promised on the back of the box. To her, what could possibly be more interesting than that. There was plenty of what every "B Horror Flick" needs, ridiculous mystery monsters, boys meet girls and exposition lumped via conveniently on hand TV news broadcasts. Add to that my daughter's favorite scene, 1 lunatic carrying a goat [Les Tremayne formerly seen in "War of The World's" as General Mann and 30+ other films] and a few crazed drunkards soon to be skewered by the javelin wielding slime people just so we can see they mean business. The high tech fog wall machine that created the isolation of LA and our characters dilemma very much resembled a gigantic pulsating beach ball, but it was charming like the rest of the movie. If we had any questions the 2 charming young girls came with a rather grandfatherly scientist dad who answered all of our questions before they were asked and resembled a Western version of Charlie Chan. He seemed very pleased that his shapely daughters suddenly found heroic suitors at a time when heroic suitors were really needed. The sex and gore shown was not too explicit and were both kept very suitable for all audiences unlike some in this genre.

This movie is good for laughs and is a notch above the standard B horror flicks of the era. Unfortunately, the video quality is poor and the audio is worse. I have been told that the DVD version has the same quality issues leading me to believe that it was copied from the same faded master that the video obviously was. This is a real drawback and I hope some re-mastered versions are produced in the future as this movie is in its own way worthwhile entertainment on several levels and for a variety of audiences.

"One minute there was just a fog, the next it got thick and hard...".......2005-06-29

I've read a number of comments on here for The Slime People (1963), specifically in relation to the dialog track being missing from the Rhino DVD release...I can understand the frustration in not getting what one pays for, but those who did receive versions without this element might consider themselves lucky, as I watched the movie last night, and the dialog didn't help the film any...the film was directed by Robert Hutton who, incidentally, also stars...I can't help wonder if he got the directing gig and then cast himself in the lead role afterwards. If I come off as sounding biased against Mr. Hutton it's only because this is the 2nd feature I've seen this week starring this individual, the other being the tepid sci-fi feature They Came From Beyond Space (1967), and after that, I wasn't too keen on spending more time with him anytime soon...also appearing with Hutton is Robert Burton (I Was a Teenage Frankenstein), Susan Hart (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini), who, by the way, was married to James H. Nicholson, co-founder of AIP (American International Pictures), William Boyce, Judee Morton (The Explosive Generation), and Les Tremayne (The War of the Worlds, The Monolith Monsters, The Angry Red Planet).

The film starts with a strange creature, armed with a spear, rising from the sewer (actually it uses one of those underground elevators to rise to street level, but whatever). Soon afterwards a man is found dead on the beach due to severe case of lead poisoning (he had a spear protruding from his back), which leads into the opening credits, followed by scenes involving a small aircraft, piloted by television personality Tom Gregory (Hutton), struggling through some inclement weather. He manages to land the plane, but discovers the airport is deserted, that is until a station wagon arrives containing Professor Galbraith (Burton) and his two daughters Lisa (Hart), and Bonnie (Morton)...where the hell did they come from(turns out they were away in the mountains while nearly everyone else evacuated)? Anyway, they relate a fantastic story to Tom about scaly, slime covered, prehistoric, man-like creatures taking over L.A. by using a fog machine to encase the city in an impenetrable dome made of hardened slime (turns out the monsters were disturbed by our deep drilling and underground nuclear testing, and have now decided to take over the surface world)...to which Tom thinks they're a bunch of real jokers but learns otherwise after viewing some news footage back at the television station where he works. This is also where they hook up with Calvin `Cal' Johnson, a marine (okay, since when is `The Ducktail' an approved hairstyle for the marines?) who got separated from his unit and sought refuge at the station. The group formulates a plan (well, the professor does, and the rest go along with him) to break through the wall by trying all kinds of different chemicals...after this some stuff happens (most of it pretty boring), the group ends up in a butcher shop (hey, turkey legs are 35 cents a pound), some more stuff happens, Bonnie gets kidnapped, blah, blah, blah...oh yeah, there's a whole lot of fog which tends to obfuscate matters, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing...

I said this for the film They Came From Beyond Space and I'm saying it again for this one, Robert Hutton just doesn't seem like leading man material to me...in supporting roles he'd be fine, but I have yet to see him carry an entire film. Actually, he seems to be more of the villain type as he has sinister features (like that pencil line mustache)...but compared to the others in this film, Hutton comes off like a master thespian. I don't want to pick on William Boyce too much as this was his first (and only) role, but he was truly terrible and his character came off as an idiot (so do the rest, but his doubly so due to his own incompetence)...watch for the scene in which he, during a moment of frustration, smacks his fist in his hand ala Burt Ward (as the Robin character) in the mid 1960's Batman television show. The women acted pretty in pretty much standard fashion for a film like this, often screaming in phony terror, getting all overly dramatic, and, in general, presenting themselves as liabilities. The only halfway interesting character is that played by Les Tremayne (he played a kooky writer the group picks up about mid picture), but he's written as such an antagonizing jerk you just know he's not going to make it until the end. Of course, no one is aided by the terrible script and directionally challenged and tedious plot, perfectly illustrated in the method used to fill the audience in on a good number of the details by making us watch the characters watch newsreel footage, much of which talked about battles between the army and hordes of slime men, but never actually showed any fighting. Especially sickening is the love angles that develop between Professor Galbraith's daughters and the two men, who are about as charming as dead wood. For a film that's only about an hour and fifteen minutes long, it sure knew how to drag things out...the monsters (by the way, three creatures, which is the most seen on the screen at anyone time, hardly makes an invasion) looked pretty decent, but were hardly slimy, as indicated by the title. While they looked reasonably decent, they did move around like guys in elaborate rubber suits unsure of their footing (slow and awkward), were hardly menacing, and made really funny noises akin to someone unclogging a drain...gurgle gurgle...blort...gurgle...at least the filmmakers didn't shy away from showing them as they're the first thing we see as the story opens. And one more thing with regards to the group retreating to the butcher store...I was half hoping they'd take up arms (cleavers, boning knifes, etc.) and fight the creatures, but no such luck...

The picture one this Rhino DVD release looks pretty good, but does show some signs of wear. The audio is a different story...some have commented on here that the dialog track is missing from their DVD...I had no such problem with mine, as the audio came through pretty well until about halfway through as some audio fuzz made the dialog difficult to hear. This cleared up, but then came back again near the end. There are no special features on this DVD, but there are chapter stops, for what its worth.

Cookieman108

By the way, the tagline for this film 'Up from the bowels of the earth come...' is partially appropriate...this film came from the bowels of something...

One of my top ten movies.......2004-11-19

This was a good movie. Most of these reviews say that its so bad its good. That by definition is a good movie. The problem is that a lot of these people either don't remember the late 50's and early 60's or they have forgot the times. I was a young kid when this came out. The first time I saw one of the slime people come out of the sewer I was pretty nervous. The hero is heroic, the girls are pretty (for their time), the professor was a genius about everything and the marine was what people saw a marine as in those days. Special effects are hoaky by todays standards. Of course there isn't a thousand people getting killed every five minutes either.Since it first came out on beta I bought a copy. I have had a copy ever since. I just ordered the DVD. I hope the sound works. If it doesn't I'll buy a new tape and convert it. This is a must have movie.

There's a movie in there somewhere behind all that fog.......2004-01-09

Here's my take on The Slime People. There's a group of guys sitting around the studio trying to come up with a movie idea, one that won't be rejected like all of their previous submissions. From out of nowhere, the fog machine goes haywire and won't shut off, and the studio has to send everyone home. Before a tech can get there to fix the thing, though, these would-be filmmakers decide that this is the chance they've been dreaming of; they have to move quick, though, before someone fixes the machine. They quickly decide to make a monster movie; naturally, since this is the early 1960s, atomic testing will be used to explain how the whole mess is really our own fault and not the monsters'. But what kind of monster should it be? Someone yells out - "I know, let's make it slime people." Since the repairman is on his way and no one has a better idea, they go for it. This is what they came up with: these slime people have been living underground and in our sewers for a very long time; nuclear testing has put a burr in their collective saddle so they have come up top to take over our world - well, Los Angeles, anyway. They've got this machine that makes fog, and this fog lowers the temperature enough so that they can survive above ground; then there's a wall, a wall somehow made out of the fog, which seals the whole city within an impenetrable barrier. Brilliant, they all say - all but one - and get right to work. Mr. "Rain On Our Parade" keeps asking questions: What are we going to use to make the wall? Why do these Slime People all look strangely like Bigfoot? Why is there no slime actually involved here? You know the type. Look, they explain, it doesn't matter how dumb the monsters look, and we don't even have to build a fake wall at all - there's fog all over the place. People won't even be able to see the heroes half the time, much less the crummy sets and ridiculous monster outfits. Mr. Pessimist nods and then asks how apparently reptilian creatures, being cold-blooded, could survive beneath the earth and why, if they came aboveground, they would want to lower the temperature rather than raise it for their own comfort and survival. Don't worry about it, kid, they say; one of our characters is going to be a professor; when you have a professor in your film, you can say and do whatever you want. If the professor says it's so, the audience will believe it. The rest, as they say, is bad movie history.

Customer Reviews:

Good movies......very bad quality picture and sound.......2001-01-12

The Slime People has always been one of those favorites of mine. I was excited to be able to get it on DVD format. Unfortunately, the transfer of the original to DVD has been done so badly, that the film is nearly unwatchable. And the sound is warbly to say the least. Perhaps they simply had a bad original to work with. It is still fun to watch though....just not very well preserved.

Creature was transferred with about the same disregard for getting a decent quality of picture recorded on the DVD format. It's a shame that two fun movies were recorded this badly.

I'd recommend this DVD for anyone who likes old flicks, The Slime People is one of the classics of low-budget B&W California sci-fi. Just don't expect to see high quality video or hear decent sound because the thing was recorded very badly.

Pre-Alien film is very original and has some good scares........1999-02-09

I enjoyed this movie, which is about a trio a aliens that terrorize a small backwoods town. It has a few good scares and came out before Alien, so it can't be billed as a ripoff.

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