Rainey Dawn
The movie is not good - in fact it is pure junk. Yet there is something strangely entertaining about this film. IDK how a movie this junky can entertain so well but this movie can do that for certain viewers - including myself.The movie is less than an hour long. In my opinion, what was missing was a longer movie to finish telling the story. The movie had the potential to be better and all it really needed was more time to complete the story because the story was incomplete.There is something strangely good about this horrible film... maybe it is simply the fact it had the potential to be better than what it is. I liked the narration, the way the movie was filmed, the odd characters, and even the incomplete story.If you are looking for a movie that is very odd and is a bad b-rated film that is somewhat entertaining then look no further than this campy flick.7/10
dougdoepke
I would think a movie, no matter how bad, has to get a commercial release in order to qualify for IMDb listing. Hard to believe this mess would be picked up, even at the pre-school level. But I guess it was. Anyway, for me what's notable is poor Tor Johnson. His "beast" is more like a lonely old man wandering dementedly through wastelands because nobody will take him in. He's having a heckuva time dragging that 300 lbs. over the dried-out terrain. I hope they paid him well, but I doubt it. Too bad filmmaker Francis never heard the words "storyline" or "timeline". Judging from what's on screen, I'm betting he spent his time catching bad French art movies. Then again, the narration, as other reviewers detail, sounds like a philosophy class flunk out. How fitting. The whole thing bears the stamp of runaway self indulgence. No need to go on. The movie's neither good-bad nor fun. Mostly it's just painful. Poor Tor, he deserved better.
mark.waltz
Looking like he's covered in plaster of Paris, perennial monster Tor Johnson survives a nuclear explosion and becomes a monstrous killer. Of course, if you can believe that he was once an esteemed Russian scientist out to better the world, then you might believe he would survive this explosion, not to mention his beautiful face attract a cute bunny rabbit to his side in one of cinema's most ridiculously stupid moments. There's no real plot line and no real screenplay even, just 90% narration telling this story which drive-in audiences probably drove out on. The opening sequence, showing a young woman being strangled (barely showing any emotion) also gives the hint that the fiend who did this raped her corpse as well, hints of the bed moving up and down briefly in one of cinema's most disgusting moments. Attempts to get the audience into the story by having two kids lost in the mountains with Johnson on their trail fail completely. You're much better re-visiting "Plan Nine From Outer Space" and all the other Ed Wood films which are "Citizen Kane" in comparison to this pile of cinematic schlock.
SukkaPunch
Many years ago I read a review from colleague of mine which exclaimed that the Beast of Yucca Flats was a bad film with no defenders. No one, he said, would ever come to this film's defense and proclaim it to have some special message no one understood, no accidental genius, or no grand ineptness as with films Plan 9 From Outer Space. For years – I agreed. Yucca Flats, after all, was a film with no focus, hardly any dialogue, and a narration that made no sense. I would have gone as far to have said, I hated this movie. It wasn't fun to watch with friends, it didn't make you laugh at its stupidity and it didn't leave you feeling that any real effort was poured into the film. Recently, however, I decided that I must come to Coleman Francis' defense and give a legitimate review, and honest praise for this movie. This review is a defense of the anti-film, the bad as bad gets. And a story about how I stopped hating and learned to love this cinematic bomb. Before I divulge into why I feel that this film is a masterpiece, I think I should discuss what the storyline in the film is about: A Russian Scientist, Joseph Javorsky (Tor Johnson) has escaped from behind the iron curtain, deflected to the United States and now wants to help the US defeat the communists by giving data on certain Soviet activities, including, but not limited to, a moon landing and information about the atomic bomb. Before any of this can happen Jovorsky is chased down by two KGB agents, he manages to escape but quickly wanders off into a nuclear bomb testing area right when a test bomb explodes. The resulting fallout turns him into a monster, hungry for blood. My first realization of this films greatness was in its rewatch factor. I was not content with watching this film once, and while I never felt entertained by it, I never got bored of it either. The bleak desert atmosphere and creepy off handed narration took me into a time warp. This fifty minute film slowed time; in many cases it felt as though hours passed while I watched it. Yet, even now, after having seen it several more times than any sane person ever should admit, I still remain entranced by it. It literally feels like hypnosis. The second aspect of its greatness lays in Coleman Francis' narration. I never understood what I liked about it so much, but recently on an IMDb forum I think two users helped me come across an answer. The explanations were this: First nearly all of Francis' statements are stated as though they are haikus, i.e. "Flag on the moon – how did it get there?" Secondly, most of these questions posed by Francis could only be answered by the now insane Joseph Jovorsky. The fact that many of Yucca Flat's plot points go nowhere is directly tied to the fact that the one person who holds the answers to the narrator's cannot answer it – he himself is a victim of the Cold War—a genius whose whole entire life was destroyed by the by the American's atomic bomb and the Soviet's spies. It's interesting to note that Coleman's go to phrase is, "caught in the wheels of progress." He exclaims that nearly everyone in the film is a victim of the atomic age. It's kind of funny, because it seems to be true. Joe Dobbson was wounded parachuting in the Korean War and now works seven days a week with his partner to help protect his community. Because of this, his wife is frustrated, and his town is near a nuclear testing site. Jovorsky is also a victim, his family has been killed, his genius has been used only for the Cold War effort, and he his ultimately killed by the wars biggest symbol – the atom bomb. The film ends with Jovorsky being gunned down by the two patrolmen. Right before he dies a wild bunny rabbit visits the dying scientist, almost looking concerned for the dying man, the dying man looks at the rabbit, touches is as if finally remembering that he was once a caring man and dies. Leaving us to wonder: perhaps we are all the victims of progress, living in a world much faster, and much more dangerous than ever before.
