Search - The She-Creature on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1956 Format: DVD SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Studio: Direct Video Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Horror

The lovely assistant of an evil hypnotist has no idea that she is the descendant of a horrifying prehistoric sea monster she is mesmerized by her boss. When the monster comes forth, she goes on a killing spree. A promoter learns about the hypnotist's shenanigans and figures a way to cash in on the death and destruction. Meanwhile, each time the assistant is hypnotized and the monster emerges, she is able to better control it. The monster costume was created by master make-up artist Paul Blaisdell and is considered one of his best. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Chester Morris - Dr. Carlo Lombardi
Marla English - Andrea
Tom Conway - Timothy Chappel
Cathy Downs - Dorothy
Lance Fuller - Ted Erickson

Edward L. Cahn's The She-Creature (1956) is one of the better movies to come out of American International Pictures' orbit, principally because of the eerie, uneasy mood created by the director, the unsettling performances by Chester Morris as the broken-down hypnotist and Marla English as his unwilling subject, and also due to Paul Blaisdell's wild design for the title monster, a strange amphibious being covered with scales and possessing a shell-like exoskeleton and even an extra set of jaws where its breasts should be. The movie has now shown up from Direct Video as a Region 2 disc, playable in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan, and on computers set up to do it and all-region machines anywhere, as part of the Samuel Arkoff Collection, referring to the co-founder of American International. The full-frame (1.33:1) image looks decent, perhaps a bit better than the movie did in broadcasts during the 1970s, in keeping with the deliberately dark visual tone of the film. When the title creature appears aglow, it's downright eerie, and as it manifests itself clearly, it's so otherworldly as to be worth the price of admission just for those sequences. The eight chapters are well chosen to properly outline the movie, and the disc comes complete with trailers from nine Arkoff movies, plus the same 50-minute Arkoff talk that appears on other discs in the DVD series. There are also German and Dutch subtitles available, for those who want them. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide