Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Jonathon Dabell The Monster Of Piedras Blancas is a low-budget monster movie from the golden heyday of low-budget monster movies, the 1950s. By this time, the British had begun introducing an element of gore into their horror movies with the likes of The Curse Of Frankenstein and Horrors Of The Black Museum… and here some of that gore makes it into an old-school American creature feature. While the film isn't especially good in the normal sense of the word, it does rise to a number of scenes that must have been very powerful to the unsuspecting audiences of the day, most notably the scene where the monster suddenly emerges from a freezer at the back of a store with a severed head in its hand.In a quiet Californian coastal town, a couple of fishermen turn up dead in a boat, their corpses decapitated with almost surgical precision and barely a drop of blood left in their bodies. Local store-keeper Kochek (Frank Arvidson) warns that the dead are not victims of a tragic accident, hinting that they have been killed by a living creature, perhaps even the Monster of Piedras Blancas which is a well-known but much-ridiculed local legend. Lighthouse keeper Sturgess (John Harmon) seems particularly upset by the killings and makes a point of telling his daughter Lucy (Jeanne Carmen), waitress in a local bar, to make sure she is vigilant on the way home. Meanwhile, the town constable Matson (Forrest Lewis) works tirelessly with the local doctor, Sam Jorgenson (Les Tremayne), to figure out a rational explanation for the recent deaths. Lucy ignores her father's advice and goes for a moonlight swim with her boyfriend Fred (Don Sullivan), but she can't shake the feeling that someone or something is watching them. Later, more decapitated corpses turn up – one of them a child – and people start placing more credence in the idea that a monster is at large. Finally, the monster shows itself and the townsfolk find themselves up against a seemingly indestructible mutant fish-man with a taste for red meat! For me, the thing that makes The Monster Of Piedras Blancas more bearable than many films of this type is that it tries to pay attention to logic. Admittedly, much of the logic in the film is flawed. For example, the "indestructible" monster falls from a lighthouse into the sea and everyone celebrates its destruction - erm, hold on folks, the monster's almost impossible to kill and it's back in its natural habitat… something tells me this thing ain't dead! However, in others aspects the film does try quite hard to provide feasible explanations for the origins of the monster and the actions of the characters. The monster itself is the best thing about the film – a nod towards The Creature From The Black Lagoon, with a more gruesome face and bucketloads of drool. Alas, there's not much else in the film worth mentioning. It's an extremely slow-moving flick for much of the time, and the years have diminished whatever shock value the occasional gore scenes might once have possessed. There's probably some nostalgic charm in revisiting a movie like this – indeed, a whole generation have The Monster of Piedras Blancas to thank for the first time they saw a severed head in a film – but overall it's not a film that has much else to offer for modern audiences.

Michael_Elliott Monster of Piedras Blancas, The (1959) * 1/2 (out of 4) Silly Mexican rip of The Creature from the Black Lagoon has a small fishing village being terrorized by a sea creature who likes to cut off heads. There isn't an ounce of charm in this low budget film, which makes it deadly boring and silly. The creature looks pretty good but he isn't on screen until the very end, which makes no sense since the rest of the movie is just boring.As of now this title isn't available officially so you'll have to find it from a trader.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** There's this blood sucking monster on the loose in and around the Piedras Blancas by the old lighthouse outside of the little sea front town of Windswept. The monster living in the caves was minding it's own business for years until the lighthouse keeper Sturges, who discovered the monsters's hiding place. Sturges weaned it over the years on scraps of meat that turned the monster from a fish to a meat-eater. Later when old man was unable to get the monster meat from the towns grocery store owner Kochek ,who stopped giving him free scraps , it just went out looking and hunting the townspeople for it's next meal. The usual 1950's black & white monster movie with a lot more "meat" to it then you would have expected. Lopping off it's victims heads and then sucking out their blood the monster turns the little sleepy town of Windswept into a ghost town. With everyone there too scared to wander out in fear that the monster would get them. Sturges becomes paranoid when his young daughter Lucy comes home to the lighthouse to spend her summer vacation there from college.It's doesn't take that long when Lucy, skinny dipping outside the Pledros Blancus caves, is spotted by the monster who develops a strong liking for her or was it Lucy's underclothes. It's then that the monster starts feasting on the people in town by first grabbing the two Ranoldi brothers, out on the "point" fishing, and having them for dinner. By the time the movie is over the monster had already finished off a half dozen or so other townspeople including the guilt-ridden lighthouse keeper Sturges. Sturges was also critical of Lucy getting involved with young oceanographer Fred and planing to marry him. Since he felt that Fred wasn't good enough for her as well as him getting close to finding out the connection he has with the monster. The monster, called Eddie in the movies credits, was pretty scary looking but his movements on land were so slow and clumsy that it was a miracle that he could catch anyone, including himself; as he stumbled and bumbled around the rocks and sand outside his home in the Pledras Blancas. Some of the scenes in the film were a bit shocking, back then in 1959. With the monster in one scene nonchalantly walking out of a store with the head of the store clerk dangling from him claw-like hand and then leaving it in it's cave to be eaten by sea crabs.The ending of the movie was a bit too unbelievable with the monster chasing Lucy to the top of the lighthouse. Then, what seemed like, waiting for the entire town to come over and watch the show as it fights it out in a life and death struggle with Fred. This happens as everyone at the bottom of the lighthouse,all armed and dangerous, just stand there and watch! Doing nothing to help as the monster takes it's final swan dive after bursting out with what had to be it's, the movies, theme song.

jamesbryanpitts I insisted on seeing this movie when it came out in the 1950's, I was 7 years old. I got to the theatre late and the movie had already started. As I opened the doors to enter the screening room a strange feeling came over me, could it have been that the room was pitch black and 500 people were screaming at the top of their lungs? Somehow I found my way to a seat trying not to look at the screen. In a few minutes the monster comes waltzing out of some industrial size refridgerator carrying some guys head in his hand.....that was all it took....as the blood rushed to my head I did the 50 yard dash to the doors in world record time and never looked back. Decades later (1990's) I had the chance to watch the movie again on cable. This time my girlfriend was with me so I was able to get through it........