Corman Produced

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST-1958-John Corcoran (Michael Emmet; later in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES), the first man to orbit the Earth in a satellite crash lands coming back and is killed. This upsets his fiancee Dr. Julie Benson (Angela Greene). Dave Randal (Ed Nelson; in CRY BABY KILLER the same year), female photog Donna (Georgianna Carter), the analytic Dr. Wyman (Tyler McVey) and Steve (John Baer) take John's body (which has not decomposed at all) back to their lab where they discover a strange contusion on his arm. Also their radio doesn't work. After Dave has an encounter with an unknown creature and they lose electric power and their car and truck won't work, it's obvious something is keeping them there. They also discover a magnetic barrier surrounds their compound. 

At night Dr. Wyman’s bloody headless body is found hanging in their lab and John has come back to life. He’s very confused and says “It didn't come here to destroy!”. It turns out to be a weird looking alien that's using John's body as a breeding ground for new aliens (they look like sea horses). The monster kind of looks like it's covered in dried mud. It attacks but they drive it off. The next day, Dave, Steve and Donna are searching for the monster which briefly captures Donna. Eventually John realizes the alien doesn't want to help Earth, It just wants to replace humans with its race. John kills himself and Dave and Steve burn up the monster. 

Director Bernard Kowalski made his directing debut earlier in the year with HOT ROD GIRL (which Nelson and McVey appear in) and later made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. He does a good job keeping everything eerie and claustrophobic and though obviously inspired by THE THING the US-Russian space race figured into it too. The monster is strange looking but doesn't look like it would come from outer space. 

This AIP production was produced by Roger and Gene Corman. 

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!