Wordiezett So much average

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

gavin6942 Archaeologists investigating some Mayan ruins come across a blob-like monster. They manage to destroy it with fire, but keep a sample. Meanwhile, a comet is due to pass close to the Earth - the same comet passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. Coincidence? As the story goes, director Riccardo Freda intentionally dropped out of the production early on in order to allow his cinematographer (Mario Bava) to take over and get the first film under his belt as director. Whether this is accurate is unknown, and ultimately neither of them ended up taking credit, the director being some pseudonym. What makes this historically important is that, of course, today Bava is celebrated and Freda is much lesser-known outside of hard-core movie geek circles. Though we have to credit Freda for "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock" (1962) and "The Ghost" (1963), both starring Barbara Steele, as well as the under-appreciated "Tragic Ceremony", it is Bava who is considered the father of Italian genre cinema.Now, "Caltiki" is not a perfect film. Most noticeably, the film or camera used did not allow for a high amount of contrast. Some scenes, particularly the darker ones, make it hard to see exactly what it is we are supposed to be seeing. But this is made up for with the ingenuity of the slime monster. Even knowing that it is "tripe", it still has a very effective appearance and the growing / splitting movements are quite good. Comparisons to "The Blob" (1958) are inevitable, but this film and its effects are plenty strong enough to be more than a cheap knock-off. Even the makeup on Max (Gerard Herter in his debut) looks great, far better than Italian horror films are often given credit for.As noted by others more knowledgeable than myself, "Caltiki" was given a successful run on a string of double and triple bills by Allied Artists in America, but has been largely elusive on TV and home video with only a couple of token VHS appearances in Europe. The first official DVD release came from NoShame as a Region 2 Italian release in 2007. Those of us in Region 1 territory had to settle for poor quality bootlegs from a mid-quality original.The Arrow Video Blu-ray is packed tighter than a clown car, and is sure to be one of the most sought after releases of 2017. We have a new audio commentary by Bava expert Tim Lucas, as well as a new audio commentary by the other major Bava expert, Troy Howarth. One commentary probably would have sufficed, but we got the best of both worlds here. And that is just the beginning. There is "From Quatermass to Caltiki", a new discussion with author and critic Kim Newman on the influence of classic monster movies on Caltiki. We get "Riccardo Freda, Forgotten Master", an archival interview with critic Stefano Della Casa and "The Genesis of Caltiki", an archival interview with filmmaker Luigi Cozzi. And, just to put the cherry on top, an archival introduction to the film by Stefano Della Casa.Fellow reviewer Dan Day writes, "I have a feeling this Blu-ray is going to wind up on my annual top five list at the end of the year." I whole-heartedly concur. A Blu-ray of a little-known film from a beloved cult director packed with extras? No doubt this will be a must-have for many fantastic film buffs and may likely even get a Rondo nomination.

Coventry With Mario Bava being my favorite filmmaker of ALL time, I couldn't afford myself to miss out on "Caltiki" as this film – along with the equally impressive "I, Vampire" - marks his debut as a director and then still the poor man didn't receive the proper credit he deserved for it. Riccardo Freda, the official director of the two films, is also a fairly prominent and admirable name in the Italian horror/cult industry, but both films simply have Bava's style and trademarks written all over them. His already gained craftsmanship as a cinematographer and his visionary look on directing built up during the fifties undoubtedly are the main reasons why Bava became one of the greatest of all time; starting from the early 60's already (with the tremendously brilliant "Black Sunday") and onwards. "Caltiki" clearly is a blatant rip-off of other and hugely successful "unidentified monstrous substance attacking people" Sci-Fi movies from throughout the 50's decade, like "The Quatermass Experiment" and most obviously "The Blob". But there were "The Blob" is an overall disappointingly dull and politically correct thriller, this Italian dish of deliciousness is a downright outrageous and extremely fast-paced shocker. The main characters are much more vivid and identifiable, the body count lies much higher, the violence is more confronting and the special effects and make-up art are more explicit than those featuring in American and British horror productions of that era. And still, in spite of the familiar concept, the screenplay of "Caltiki" nevertheless attempts (and often succeeds, I may add) to bring some variety and inventiveness. The titular monster doesn't come from outer space, for once, and it doesn't necessarily have to consume human flesh in order to grow in size or strength. "Caltiki" has always resided here on earth and relies on radiation instead to become more dangerous. It very much likes to turn victims into skeletons, but doesn't have to! How cool is that? A group of scientists and their whiny women embark on an expedition near an ancient Mayan temple in order to finally find out why an entire civilization just disappeared in a nick of time. Shortly after a volcano eruption it becomes clear to them that the lake underneath the temple homes a hideous and unstoppable monster. They have the opportunity to bring back a piece of the monstrous substance when the greediest member of the crew nearly loses his arm trying to reach for a piece of treasure when he clearly shouldn't have. Instead of researching the matter, they quickly find themselves battling the thing again as it grows in size and hunger. "Caltiki" is packed with suspense and an unexpectedly large amount of violence and disturbing imagery.

The_Void I'm not a big fan of fifties monster movies in general, but this one is pretty decent. The film was directed by Riccardo Freda, although he was going under the pseudonym 'Robert Hamton' in order to fool audiences into thinking that the film was an American picture. The film does take obvious influence from the American monster movies and is similar in style, plot and execution; and actually credit does have to go to Freda in that respect as if it wasn't for the awful dubbing, one would have no reason to think that this wasn't an American film. The plot is rather well worked and focuses on the demise of the Mayan civilisation. We focus on a team of archaeologists studying some ancient Mayan ruins when they come across a cave which houses a lake. After diving into the lake, they discover that it is full of gold; although things go a bit awry when they also find out that the lake is inhabited by an ancient blob-like monster. They end up taking part of the creature back to the lab where upon studying it, they realise it could threaten the whole world...It was unveiled that many of the films which Riccardo Freda took credit for were actually directed by his young apprentice, Mario Bava - and Caltiki is one of those films. I have no idea how much of the film was directed by Bava, but I'd hesitantly say that I think it was mostly done by Freda as the film does not feature much in the way of Bava's trademark styling's; although in truth the filming style is all very by the numbers and there's not a lot of room for stylish visuals. The plot is well done, however, and is certainly more inventive than I thought it might be. The special effects are not particularly spectacular; though they certainly are serviceable for the type of film and are used well. There are a handful of good ideas on display - the fate that awaits a particularly greedy archaeologist being one of the best parts of it. The film tries to a bit spectacular towards the end, and it does work somewhat, although many of the American pictures did the spectacular ending better. Still, this is a decent little monster movie and I'm sure fans of this stuff will enjoy it.

MARIO GAUCI This Italian sci-fi/horror film has been mentioned so often ever since I've been browsing the Internet (and prior to that on the occasional reference book) that it had practically acquired legendary status! Now that I've watched it myself, I can say that it's an effective blend of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955) and Mexi-Horror – though it's not as intellectual as the former, nor as campy as the latter (on the accompanying Audio Commentary, Luigi Cozzi also mentions the Japanese sci-fi THE H-MAN [1958] as a possible influence); the climax, then, seems to have been inspired by QUATERMASS II (1957) – while the archaeologists' discovery of footage shot by their missing/deranged companions actually looks forward to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979).For its miniscule budget (which shows in the distinct lack of extras during a conference held to announce to the world the historic find!), the film's look (Rome standing in for Mexico!) and make-up effects (quite repulsive for the time, with the monster scenes themselves being perhaps more extensive than contemporary genre efforts) are very convincing; the attack by the blob-like monster on lead John Merivale's house (with his wife and daughter trapped inside) is especially well done – and reasonably scary. The cast – also featuring Gerard Herter (an unsympathetic variant on THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT's Richard Wordsworth), Daniela Rocca and Arturo Dominici – is interesting as well and there's a fine, suitably rousing score by Roberto Nicolosi.The DVD supplements are superb (I'm lucky to be fluent in Italian) and include two separate interviews featuring genre exponent Luigi Cozzi – who attempts, firstly, to restore to its proper place screenwriter/designer Filippo Sanjust's undervalued contribution to the film and, then, outlines Bava's exact function behind-the-scenes (he didn't actually direct any of it but, following Freda's departure, took charge during the editing stage) – and critic/historian Steve Della Casa – who talks about Freda's place in the history of Italian cinema and mentions an especially amusing anecdote involving Freda and another cult film-maker, Vittorio Cottafavi, on meeting one another in their old age at a Film Festival (each thought the other would look down on his work only to discover that they were secret admirers of one another!). It's a pity, therefore, that film buffs unfamiliar with the language can't enjoy the Audio Commentary either, as it's a truly fascinating discussion: among other things, critic Giona A. Nazzaro voices his regret over the lost art of Italy's genre cinema; there's also an interesting sideline into the unusually creative contribution of editors to Italian films during this era, among whom Mario Serandrei (responsible for CALTIKI itself) was one of the undisputed masters; Cozzi, however, mistakenly refers to John Merivale as having played Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN TERROR (1965), when it was actually John Neville (Merivale didn't in fact appear in that film!).Finally, since Image's DVD of an earlier Freda/Bava collaboration – I VAMPIRI (1957) – hasn't gone out-of-print and, so, will probably not be part of Anchor Bay's upcoming Mario Bava releases, I may well spring for it in the near future along with THE GHOST (1963), an unwatched classic Freda that's been coupled with a German Krimi – DEAD EYES OF London (1961) – on the Retromedia DVD