Monster Movie of the Week: The Black Scorpion (1957)

THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)

Directed by Edward Ludwig

Genre: Natural Horror

THE MOVIE

The Black Scorpion is notable mainly as having been worked on by the great Willis O’Brien, the animator behind the original King Kong. O’Brien here animates a bunch of giant scorpions. The movie is also unique in its Mexican setting, of which it only barely makes use. Otherwise, we have a pretty standard 1950’s giant bug movie.

Mexico clearly does not have the same level of monster preparedness as, say, Japan.

When a series of mysterious earthquakes strike rural Mexico, American Geologist, Dr. Hank Scott and his sidekick Dr. Arturo Ramos are dispatched to investigate. They discover a newly formed volcano and evidence of non-geological violence. The volcano erupts again and a group of giant scorpions are unleashed upon the countryside. After a recon trip into a fissure deep below the earth, the scientists, an annoying kid, and the Mexican military decide they can seal the scorpions under the earth by blowing up the fissure. However, the scorpions find a way to escape and the largest (and blackest) scorpion makes its way to Mexico City to wreak havoc.

THE MONSTER EFFECTS

If Ray Harryhousen is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of stop motion effects, then Willis O’Brien was the Yoda (or at least the Qui-Gon Jinn). The scorpions look and move beautifully in any long or medium shot but like many movies that feature stop motion creatures, The Black Scorpion relies on a larger puppet for close-ups. This particular puppet is pretty wacky looking with googly eyes and a drooling mouth. What’s worse it that it looks like the same painfully slow dolly shot is used EVERY time we get a close up. It must be repeated four or five times in the movie.

"Get back, man! Don't make me steeeng you!"

MONSTERS FEATURED

A group of scorpions and some other subterranean creepy-crawlies.

DVD AVAILABILITY

A bare bones version is available on Netflix.

Was also featured on an episode of MST3K.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

The cave sequence is particularly creepy.

"This senorita likes her scorpions like she likes her men..."

SEQUELS

None, but this film would be a good candidate for a remake with nice effects and that makes more use of the Mexican flavor.

SEE ALSO

Them! (1954)

TRIVIA

Another claim to fame that this film has is that spider and worm that were featured in the cave sequence were actually leftovers from King Kong That in itself is not that interesting as all the dinosaurs from that movie were leftovers from the earlier unfinished film Creation. However, the spider and the worm were featured in the infamous and lost “Spider Pit” sequence from King Kong. This was a sequence (with a counterpart in the 2005 version) that was supposedly filmed and then cut from the movie and misplaced and all that remains from it are a few reference photos. So the spider and worm give you a glimpse of a couple of creatures from that famous lost scene.

TRAILER