MovieChat Forums > From Hell It Came (1957) Discussion > FROM THE HELL IT CAME not a bad film

FROM THE HELL IT CAME not a bad film

posted 17 years ago by inneroscator2
8 replies | jump to latest

I think alot of people who classify FROM HELL IT CAME in the It`s So Bad It`s Good catagory are for the most part people who do not have that much extensive screen time in front of the TV set when they were kids as many of us do. They look at this and think that because the tobonga looks so ridiculous to them, the rest of the movie must be trash also. A pretty ignorant and uninformed attitude if you ask me. They should actually try sitting thru some of these movies they all too quickly write off as garbage. In actuality it`s a fairly well-paced little film. It`s actually pretty straightforward and does not waste any time. It starts off with a native prince having a ceremonial dagger hammered into his chest because he`s too friendly with the island visitors some american scientists and I`ve always found the tobonga`a catalyst, a combination of jungle withcraft and or radiation rather intriguing and I think the acting is fairly good too. Alot of self-appointed film critics with not nearly enough screen time in front of the TV while they were growing up will say the tree-monster looks silly and write off the entire movie and leave it at that. Idiots. Another thing that is ignored is Darrell Calker`s music which ain`t bad at all. It sounds pretty professional and it has a nice little jungle beat woven into it. I think it`s as good as anything composed by Les Baxter and it certainly sounds exotic. FROM HELL IT CAME is not really a bad film at all. The only thing it is really guilty of is having a limited budget like so many other late 1950s sci-fi movies did. Hell, it isn`t even really all that hard getting use to Mrs. Kilgore either.

[–] bobobis6 17 years ago

I saw enough of it to make my judgment. I almost the whole thing, I missed a bit of the beginning. But come on! I know it was the 50's, but oh my god! Why would someone make a movie about a walking tree stump that walks really slow and looks terrible! The thing moved so damn slowly, but everyone still managed to be killed by it, one by one. They would have heard it coming! Not to mention they also could have made an attempt to not be killed. The people simply backed up slowly, often backing into a tree. They could have simply ran away, or a speed-walk would have been enough. This movie *beep* sucked.

One last thing: The editing in the scene when they got the tree stump to fall in the hole was terrible. The camera stayed in place for like 15 seconds for no reason, and then the shot even changed anyway when the tree stump exited the hole! This was simply laziness. And don't get me started with the so-called "acting."

"My name, IS NEO!"

[–] nvasapper 15 years ago

One of the things I found quite interesting was the character of the blond female scientist. She wasn't interested in romance, marriage, or the house with the white picket fence and 2.5 kids. She was an independent career woman of great intelligence who was more than a match for the handsome hunky leading man who was trying his damndest to get in her pants. At one point he tells her she should let her emotions rule her, not her intelligence. And she puts him in his place quite deftly. Of course, since this was the 1950s, the male chauvinist has to come out on top. So when Handsome Hunk kills the Tabonga with that well-placed shot to the dagger protruding from its heart, Blondie swoons and falls into his arms.

As for Mrs. Kilgore- I wish the Tabonga had thrown her into the quicksand!

[–] xnet95 15 years ago

I agree. I'm surprised that nobody else mentioned this in any of the reviews here. One more thing I'll add:
After rejecting the American ideal for a female in the 1950's, she then goes on to save the monster in the face of male advice not to. Later, this monster tries to kill her. At this point, she realizes the folly of rejecting her destiny as a domesticated housewife and willingly falls into the arms of her suitor.

That'll teach women not to be independent!
I thought a better ending would've been for the monster to kill her because she was the one who enabled it to survive and kill. Plus, I hate women who reject men - rotten bitches!

[–] OhmsLaw 12 years ago

I thought a better ending would have been her figuring out to pull the knife from the thing's heart while she was flailing around in it's arms, hollering. Instead the heroic men are blasting bullets inches away at her to get at the knife, and all they did was knick it and that did the trick. Why didn't they pull it out when they had it hooked up to an IV? That scene was ridiculous, that they would except a tree stump having a heart beat and ignore the part of it that was breathing.

[–] brian-btapple 9 years ago

this was really a stinker. The monster and the strong female lead, until she wasn't, were the best parts of the film.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] PaladinNJ (21772) 6 years ago

For me it's a guilty pleasure. If I don't want to think to hard I pop it into the DVD player and relax.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

This movie scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I could not go in to a wooded area for the longest time. Recently, I caught it on TV and realized that what scared me as a kid made me laugh as an adult.