MOVIES & MANIA rating:
‘Terror amok! Hungry for the flesh of the world!’
Caltiki, The Immortal Monster is a 1959 Italian sci-fi horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and [uncredited] Mario Bava from a screenplay by Filippo Sanjust. It was distributed in the US by Allied Artists.
Plot:
A team of archaeologists investigating Mayan ruins comes across a blob-like monster. They manage to destroy it with fire while keeping a sample of the monster but not without loss of life.
Meanwhile, a comet is due to pass close to Earth, the same comet which passed near the Earth at the time the Mayan civilisation mysteriously collapsed…
Review One:
Directors Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava performed a perfunctory job on this X the Unknown rip-off, although it’s mildly interesting as an indicator for some future key elements of Italian genre filmmaking: there’s found footage and idle racism (both a mainstay of mondo movies), overt greed, lust and a focus on gruesomeness.
Otherwise, as a late 1950s sci-fi horror film, Caltiki lacks narrative drive, and British lead actor John Merivale (Circus of Horrors; House of Mystery) is particularly uninspiring. Thankfully, once the Blob-like monster appears, things perk up for a while. However, the film soon descends into dreary military defence scenes accompanied by dialogue that is as dated as a 1940s serial.
Ade Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
Review Two:
Caltiki The Immortal Monster is quite good fun once it gets moving, and while never exactly gripping – and several notches below the British films that inspired it – it works well within its imitations. It’s only for completist fans of either director, but if you have a taste for vintage monster movies, you’ll probably have a lot of fun with it.
David Flint, MOVIES & MANIA
Trailer:
Choice dialogue:
“You’re a sensitive woman. You need warmth. And care.”
Cast and characters:
John Merivale … Doctor John Fielding
Didi Perego … Ellen Fielding
Gérard Herter … Max Gunther
Daniela Rocca … Linda
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart … Prof. Rodriguez’s assistant
Daniele Vargas … Bob (expedition member)
Vittorio André … Professor Rodriguez
Nerio Bernardi … Police inspector
Arturo Dominici … Nieto (expedition member)
Original Italian title:
Caltiki il mostro immortale
Related:
The Blob
X the Unknown
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