Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

jhammond59 My family, the Hammonds, first saw this movie on Million Dollar Movie on channel 11 KPIX NYC. We were fully alerted when we heard our name called out in the synopsis. We must have seen it ten times back then as the movie was shown for one week, 3 or 4 times daily. It scared us kids while our parent just rolled their eyes when we watched it again and again. It's a very atmospheric mystery/thriller, with outstanding cinematography. The actors are all good although the attempts at comedy were winch-inducing as others have mentioned. A few plot holes and stretched-thin character motivations round out the negatives but that atmosphere still carries the film and I really enjoyed seeing it again . . . and again.

bkoganbing 20th Century Fox never went in for the Gothic horror films that Universal specialized in. But when they did one it was a quality product even as a B picture. Such is the case of The Undying Monster. I wish it had a better story though because the mood captured by director John Brahm is completely right for this kind of film.In a film story line that borrows quite liberally from Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound Of The Baskervilles, the Hammonds seem to be as cursed as the Baskervilles. For several hundred years a male Hammond falls victim to a curse because an ancestor sold his soul to the devil.I can't believe that none of the English colony was available here. The Scotland Yard Inspector who is using science to try and catch the murderer is American James Ellison. John Howard is the last of the male Hammonds is also American. His sister however is English Heather Angel and the key role of the coroner is played by Bramwell Fletcher.Fletcher's a scientist too, but he's real tuned into the whole occult business concerning werewolves though he thinks that science can do the trick to cure them. In that he's got an agenda all his own.The Undying Monster is a decent try at Gothic horror, but I have a feeling it would have been done better at the studio which knew how.

Spikeopath John Brahm's film is an adaptation of the novel written by Jessie Douglas Kerruish. Following the success for Universal with The Wolf Man a year earlier, 20th Century Fox clearly saw an opportunity to cash in on the renewed interest in Lycanthropic creatures. Brahm's film deals with one such legendary creature that is said to terrorise members of the cursed Hammond family. Roping in master photographer Lucien Ballard, Brahm sets the film up with the creepy ancestral home atop of a cliff, the sea on one side, the foggy moor on the other. Then with minimal budget and a cast of largely minor players-and a short 23 day production schedule, Brahm crafted a tight, eerie mystery that deserves far better appraisal than it's currently getting.Atmosphere is of paramount importance when making a Gothic type picture, The Undying Monster has it by the bucket load. Aided by Ballard's adroit skills, Brahm excellently uses shadows and light to garner unease, be it the interiors that are gorgeously designed, or the foggy exteriors perhaps hiding dark secrets, atmosphere is high quality here. The film has been chided in certain quarters for either being too talky, or for daring to be jovial at times. Yes these charges are fair if one is expecting an outright horror film and not the creepy mystery that it actually is. This is no boo jump bonanza, the creature is purposely kept from us so as to keep us, and the characters wondering when, or if, it will show up. Thus the conversations become crucial and of high interest. Something that hasn't helped the film either is its title, why they didn't go with the first muted {and English title} name, "The Hammond Mystery" is probably due to the afore mentioned attempt to cash in on The Wolf Man. As you can see, one screams out that the film is about a monster who can't be killed, the other sounds like it's an Agatha Christie who done it?. You understand their reasonings, it's just very misleading and hasn't helped the films reputation to flow.It's a cracking mystery film that has horror elements involved in its plot. More like The Hound Of The Baskervilles than The Wolf Man, it none the less is 63 minutes of 1940s Gothic joy. 8/10

The_Void The Undying Monster was apparently a second feature; and that's not really surprising as there's nothing particularly great about it and the running time is also very short. The film takes more than obvious influence from the classic Arthur Conan Doyle novel 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in that it focuses on a family curse; but the style and execution of the film is also very similar to the 1939 film version of said classic novel. The story featured is actually really good; it has several interesting themes and director John Brahm provides a foreboding atmosphere; but unfortunately the suspense is constantly abated via a very unwelcome dose of humour. The film takes place in Wales and focuses on an aristocratic family plagued by an ancient curse; which takes the form of a monster that prowls around their property at night and has already claimed the lives of several family members. After the latest incident, it is decided that there is reason to call in Scotland Yard; and a young detective and his assistant begin to investigate.The film is really good for about the first twenty minutes and it looks like it might build into something special; but when the detective and his assistant are introduced, things start to go downhill. It's obvious that the pair of them are there to add some comic relief to the proceedings; but the problem is that it's really not needed. Occasionally, some slight comic relief will come in to help even out a film with some real scenes of trauma; but here the trauma amounts to a shot of a dead dog, and the humour is all encompassing. It's not even very funny either and I barely cracked a smile at all. Once the detectives come in, the film takes on more of an investigative approach and the plot is not as interesting. The clues given to the detective's don't leave much to the imagination either (a scene that sees the detective realise that a room has been recently entered by the way of the huge set of footprints down the centre of the room being case in point!). The ending does come as something as a surprise as the film felt like it was going to head in the same direction that Conan Doyle's novel did; but it's not enough to save it and overall I have to say that I'm really disappointed considered that I had heard good things about this one!