CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Bezenby How can a film so awful be so awful, if you know what I mean? We've got a terrible rubbery monster, a hypertensive mad scientist and his lovely ethnic assistant, and some boobs, but for some reason this film feels as if it's as long as Barry Lyndon and much less eventful.Overworked, cranky scientist guy gets sent from NASA to Japan for some R and R and ends up instead trying to prove that mankind is descended from plants by getting a Venus flytrap and some underwater plant and sewing them together to make a man-plant that feeds mainly on dogs, it seems.Now look at that last paragraph - that's gold to a bad movie guy like me! But in reality this film will send you into a coma. An awfully long time is spent by the scientist talking botany with his assistant (and as a guy who has an allotment, keeping a plant in a box away from sunlight don't seem like such a good idea, plus I only use lightening on my carrots and only feed dogs to my onions. Hollywood eh?) If you can stay awake long enough for them to reveal the beeping man-plant (the inclusion of boobs might help), then the last third of the film isn't so bad, but there's no gore whatsoever and you might miss the ending if you blink. Yes, the monster looks ridiculous but I felt cheated by the lack of blood and sauce. I watched this years ago and thought it was crap then. Wish I'd written an IMDb review back then and saved myself the time of watching it again.

ebiros2 How this movie ever came to be is a mystery. Unlike the days of "Manster", nobody by 1970 would have thought low budget American/Japanese movie would make any money. It would have been a novelty at best. How the producer ever got to convince people at Toei to cooperate is another mystery, but Toei must have gotten enough money from the producer, since the movie was made.Anyways, you can see the similarity between the monster in this movie to the monsters seen in the original Kamen Rider series (1971) since both were made by Toei movie studio. Something that was just passable for kid's TV program doesn't work in a movie made for adults.It's a weird movie, and who came up with the idea is another mystery.

enw One of Universal's less known horror films (it's not even mentioned in AURUM) DOCTOR X possessed that unabashed perversity, which the studio's efforts in this direction inherited from the German expressionist cinema of the silent era, and which is sadly missing from the modern cinema. THE RETURN (in 1939) was less impressive, with Bogart out of his depth as the vampire doctor.The title of REVENGE would lead you to suspect a further sequel. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.In fact, no doctor by that name even appears in the picture, nor is anyone avenged. Perhaps it's an alternative title for MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND as its credits suggest.Nope – isn't this exciting, children? Sure it is! Well, it gets better. Now, the original title (are you with me here?) seems to have been the more descriptive THE VENUS FLYTRAP, whereas it was released as THE DOUBLE GARDEN, which makes little sense, but is probably a misprint for THE DEVIL'S GARDEN.This makes it possible to identify the scriptwriter as none other than ED WOOD (got your attention there)! From this fact alone one would naturally expect idiocy of an almost hallucinatory nature, and for once, we are not disappointed.As far as relentless stupidity and aggressive amateurism is concerned, this movie has few competitors (and I bet you haven't even seen it!) As you may have gathered, Ed did not direct this inverse masterpiece himself.Kenneth Crane did, who gave us the decent MANSTER – fortunately even his directorial skills cannot save this disaster! No inventive camera-work or adequate performances here – in fact, the Thespian playing the protagonist makes Conrad Brooks look like Olivier.Alternatively flying off the handle and fainting, the star desperately tries to disguise his non-existing acting abilities (and I haven't even mentioned his spastic attempts at being charming). Anyway, he plays a rocket scientist crossing two species of carnivorous plants – with needle and thread – in order to prove his theory that man evolved from marine life (and that's the most sensible proposition of the entire movie!) All this takes place in Japan, where he is vacationing after a nervous breakdown (he has one approximately every five minutes) providing a not especially exotic female assistant. Of course, she's a virtual beauty queen compared to the hunchback playing Bach's Toccata in d minor on an organ (I kid you not).On their way to the laboratory, they are delayed by a landslide and a volcanic eruption, causing her to muse: "An active volcano – another reason for the decline of my father's property!" This is of course an astute observation – active volcanoes do tend to have an adverse effect on real estate prices.The mad doctor now begins his experiments in grafting, logically including lots of electrical equipment, thunderstorms and an operating table that can be hoisted up under the ceiling (with the plant) – this of course is where the dwarf comes in. Soon, his creation is ready to terrorize the countryside and be chased by villagers with torches – it is of course green and looks a bit like MISTER POTATOHEAD with a jester's headdress and boxing-gloves, and whenever it attacks, the screen goes RED, being a lot cheaper than gory makeup effects.This sorry creature with its potted feet and its decidedly Japanese body language, we are told, will DEVOUR EVERYTHING. In short, mankind would have been doomed to extinction, if it hadn't been for that volcano stock footage! During one of the longer stretches we are treated to topless female divers (I guess it falls under the category of travelogue, so it's okay). Also, for once the score really deserves its own CD, being one of the most outrageous assortments of absurdly inappropriate background music ever assembled.Do I have to say it? It's a wonderful, wonderful movie!

horrorfilmx I watched this movie last night in a state of total confusion. The opening credits read "Directed by Eddie Romero" and some other guy and "Starring John Ashley and Angelique Pettyjohn" so like any devoted B movie fan I was expecting lots of fun Blood Island Hijinks. The movie starts and it feels like a Larry Buchanan epic on a (slightly) bigger budget, but minutes drag by with excruciating slowness and there's no sign of the putative stars. Next thing you know we're in Japan and some mad scientist is trying to create humanoid life from a Venus flytrap in a scene that looks like a cross between FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUTATIONS. And all to background music that sounds like it was swiped from a local kiddie show from the 1950s! And weirdest of all, with all these surreal goings on I'M STILL NOT HAVING ANY FUN!!!!! Thank god for the IMDb! All has been explained and my world makes sense (sort of) again. Exit Eddie Romero, enter Ed Wood, and leave all hope of quality behind. I'm hesitant to use a phrase like "worst movie of all time" but I believe I have finally found that elusive worst movie. No entertainment value, not even of the camp or inadvertent variety, just 90+ minutes of stultifying ineptitude. Okay, there's one scene where the scientist is apparently seeking the help of a group of female divers and all the girls standing around listening to his half assed theories are topless, so for a few brief moments there are some pretty cute boobies on display. That's the sole redeeming feature of this film, and believe me it's not enough.