Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

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

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

gavin6942 Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City.The man responsible for this film, Edward Irving Ludwig (1899–1982), was a Russian-born American film director and writer. He directed nearly 100 films between 1921 and 1963 (some under the names Edward I. Luddy and Charles Fuhr). And yet, despite this prolific output, you probably never heard of him because they were all these cheap films.What makes this film memorable at all is that Willis O'Brien, creator of the stop-motion effects for the original "King Kong", was the special effects supervisor, albeit on a smaller budget. Pete Peterson, who worked with O'Brien on "Mighty Joe Young", did most of the actual hands-on animation. O'Brien borrowed heavily from other previous movies he worked on for the special effects in this film. The models used for the trapdoor spider and the giant tentacled worm have been reported to be the same ones that were used in the famous "Lost Spider Pit Sequence" from the original "King Kong". So they were not wasted after all!

Idiot-Deluxe The Black Scorpion could have been a good movie, but let me assure you IT IS NOT.The Black Scorpion is a rather stately and pricey-looking monster movie produced by Warner Bros. in 1957, it was filmed in widescreen black & white and shot on location in Mexico. It also unfortunately is, for the most part, extremely boring and imminently forgettable. And I really do wish I could say otherwise. The film stars the once lovely Mara Corday and that blonde-headed guy from "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" and a small army of identity-less actors that aren't worth mentioning. The only reason I give it two stars is because the stop-motion animation for the giant scorpions is terrific (for the most part), which is easily the movies best attribute - it's really it's only attribute. The acting is serviceable, but hardly stellar, the photography is quite all right - but what I think really kills this movie, is it's horrendous sense of pace. All to often this movie is painfully boring and VERY chatty, often you find yourself watching people doing utterly mundane and uninteresting things. The scientific conference scenes (which are completely static) are particularly challenging to sit through. And although this film is only 88 minutes in length, it seems much longer then that.........The plot goes something like this, recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in rural Mexico have caused a rupture in the ground (out in the deserts of southern Mexico) and gigantic predatory scorpions are coming out of the rupture, from an immense cavern deep from within the bowels of the inner-earth. The giant scorpions are making nightly ventures to nearby villages, causing death and destruction where ever they go. And the superstitious local villager's don't know what the hell's going on and of course, have no answers, so it's up to a couple of biologists (the stars) to save the day. After a short while of roving around out in the Mexican desert they're perplexed by all the "giant scorpion damage" that they're seeing. They also notice from a distance, that the lovely Mara Corday (she's a wealthy Mexican lady, with the thinnest Mexican accent imaginable) has fallen from her horse and needs their immediate attention. Eventually they meet up with a some other scientists and the word that giant scorpions are prowling the desert, at night, ONLY at night and naturally since they're hostile as hell they need to be exterminated ASAP. Eventually our gallant duo of biologists are lowered down (by crane) into a huge cavern, which pretty much serves as the nest of the scorpions, this scene reveals "the mother of them all" a scorpion bigger and more ferocious than the rest of them. The queen scorpion perhaps? Barely making it out alive, BOOM! they dynamite the cave entrance, the end? Unfortunately not quite. It turns out that there's yet another entrance to the outer-world, that the giant nocturnal scorpions are escaping from and now their out for vengeance and their next stop is Mexico City! So after the movie bores it's viewers all but completely stiff for the first 75 minutes, the pace really begins to quicken. You get the standard "frantic mobs fleeing at street-level" scenes, with all the random yelling and then as soon as they get that cliché out of the way, they enact their plan. Their aim is to lure the big bad scorpion into a huge soccer arena (what the hell happened to the dozens of other giant killer scorpions, all of which where the size of buses???); their plan is to isolate it inside the arena and kill the beast with a specially-made electrified (600,000 volts) harpoon. This sequence is easily the most exciting of the movie, what you have here is a giant scorpion that's violently thrashing and writhing, attacking soldiers and army vehicles with it's giant tail and pincers; all while constantly being bombarded by tanks, bazookas and machine-gun fire (all of this does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, except create a constant series of small explosions all over the scorpion, just for fireworks really). Also they felt the need to add some helicopters to pointlessly hover around it, I suspect for no other reason then to make the scene more busy looking - "to complete the picture" in other words. Note* the beast eventually does pull one out of the sky. Then our hero's save the day and Mexico City, with the electrified-harpoon, they nail the scorpion in "it's vulnerable area" which is it's throat where it has no armor. TURN ON THE JUICE! Now this really -could have- been a great death scene and I was expecting to see lots of arcing electricity and fireworks. However..... nothing like that happens, not even any good (or even appropriate) sound effects are heard, nothing at all. Just a lame ending, to a lame failure of a movie. The strong-points of The Black Scorpion are first and foremost, as previously mentioned, the majority of the stop-motion effects are simply spectacular looking, scorpions usually take well to such animation and these just might be the best of their kind, might be. The highly melodic and often frantic musical score (by the great and highly under-rated composer Paul Sawtell) is often a compelling listen - though it does seem to wear a bit thin before everything's all said and done. There's the sultry beauty of Mara Corday, who was a nice piece of eye-candy in her day (just ask Hugh Hefner), though I think she looked hotter yet in "The Giant Claw" (an even worse movie) which was made immediately before or after this. And lastly, lot's of striking backgrounds are seen throughout, due in light to great location scouting and solid cinematography Really the main thing that destroys this movies is it's HORRENDOUS sense of pace. Which does not make for compelling viewing. It's an inescapable fact The Black Scorpion is a failure because of it's stodgy pacing.

Leofwine_draca A textbook, cut-and-paste example of a '50s monster movie, with all the typical ingredients including strange isolated deaths, a rampage through a city. Really, you could swap the scorpions in this film for a group of giant ants, or a scaly lizard, and it would still make sense.However what these kind of films all have in their favour are the special effects. For THE BLACK SCORPION, Willis O'Brien, the creator of the original King Kong, is on hand near the end of his career, and he creates some superb scenes with the scorpions. Highlights include a battle between a scorpion and a giant worm (in these stop-motion fests, two monster always end up fighting each other. It's an unwritten rule) and a scene where the scorpions smash apart a model train. And then of course there's the rampage through a city, something which I'll never get tired of.The actors all do their bit but it's the stop motion effects which we are really watching for, and they don't disappoint at all. The scene where the scorpion smashes the helicopters is exciting, but unfortunately there is no pathos to be spared for insects, and this element is missing. However you do have to feel a bit sorry for something that has just been killed by a man wearing a tank top! THE BLACK SCORPION is a generic film with some excellent special effects to keep things moving along. It's an average example of a monster movie in every respect, but it'll keep you entertained if you're a fan of these things.

AaronCapenBanner Edward Ludwig directed this science fiction horror thriller that stars Richard Denning as American geologist Hank Scott, who is recruited by the Mexican authorities when an earthquake unleashes a horde of giant scorpions upon the Mexican countryside, causing havoc and destruction as they threaten to overrun the nearby city, then the world. Good model F/X on display, with some harrowing attack scenes(including a vivid cavern sequence), but there is no story or character involvement at all, with the plot being overly familiar and uninspired. A pity, because the film pushed the violence boundaries for its time, but the film just comes up short, and has been strangely forgotten. Basically a rehash of the much superior "Them!"