The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

Made at the tail end of the 50s B-movie explosion surely you’d think things would improve throughout the era right? Oh boy you’re gravely mistaken, z-list seldom describes the calibre of The Giant Gila Monster. The directorial debut of one Ray Kellogg and certainly not his finest hour. He only directed two Horror films in his time. This and The Killer Shrews a film I haven’t seen in years but one which I do have fond memories of. This one however is a train wreck (there is literally a train crash in it too). The saying so bad it’s good isn’t even enough to qualify this film as one with any sort of kudos. Put bluntly it fucking sucks big time.

So why is it so bad? Well for one the monster is a literal lizard. Now I’ve not got an issue with this generally (see my review of The Spider for more real creature madness), but here it is infuriating. The sound design surrounding the ‘monster’ is really bad for one, in fact it’s annoying and secondly it’s quite a slow moving creature. Because of this the shots of it are boring and drawn out. If ever there was a direct definition of padding out a film this would be it. A vast number of these shots don’t even have any set design to them, and when there is set design like the aforementioned train crash or the ‘climactic’ ending in the dance hall you’re so taken out of the moment and can only see the lizard as just that, a normal size lizard. It’s a film more concerned with needless ambling story and character development than action and adventure. Lead man Don Sullivan who plays all American rocking 50s hero Chase is but the tip of the annoying iceberg. Plus did I mention that he has a song? Jesus wept, it sucks so bad, utterly pathetic and lame musical interludes which add nothing to the story than a boost to perfect Chase’s ego, ugh what a tool. I could go on ranting but my fingers simply don’t have the energy to express my distain for almost every character, just know this, they’re all caricatures and all very poorly performed.

So what about the story? Well, that’s just as dull as everything else in this film. A couple of rocking teens are chilling out in their car when they’re killed by the lazily imagined Gila Monster. Thus follows a slew of ‘where did they go’, ‘where’s my kid?’ etc statements that seem to span the majority of the film. The worst thing about it all is that we the viewer know exactly what it is and so it’s just super dull watching them ponder and take ages to figure out that it’s the Gila Monster. They finally discover it after town drunk Old Man Harris (Shug Fisher) warns the sheriff (Fred Graham) about the beast. The sheriff is actually the only real redeemable feature of this movie, a pretty good performance from him. Chase however is basically used by the sheriff so much for information throughout though that he might as well be a police officer too. He acts as a sort of father figure to the other teens who all look up to him, ugh, just when you thought Chase couldn’t get any more detestable. Anyway Horatio Alger ‘Steamroller’ Smith (Ken Knox) who is saved by Chase earlier in the film stops by to play the latest rockin tunes being a DJ and of course hands the stage over to Chase so we can hear his shit song again. That’s when hell breaks loose and the Gila Monster attacks. Chase blows the monster up with nitro and his hot rod and boom, happy ending. It’s never really clarified what the monster is other than a freak of nature, a sort of mutation I guess, but again this is to the films discredit.


Most of the ‘so bad it’s good’ style movies have something funny to latch onto. Let’s use Troll 2 as an example here, it’s funny because it has memorable quotes, poor costumes, and goblins when the film is called Troll 2, plus it’s a sequel to a movie it shares no relation to. That right there is a recipe for a good bad movie. The Giant Gila Monster on the other hand has this, bad acting, a shit monster, a lack of action, a boring plot, annoying characters and almost not a single good point, even the sheriff can’t save it alone, sorry buddy. This isn’t a so bad it’s good movie, it’s just a bad movie. I would say that for historical purposes as a B-movie that pops up a lot you’ve kind of got to see it to believe it. I mean z-list doesn’t even cover it, if you’re looking for the deepest dregs of cinematic history it’s right here.

Rating: Shit