Horror Film Review: Teenage Zombies (dir by Jerry Warren)

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1959’s Teenage Zombies tells the story of a quartet of “teenagers.”

Reg (Don Sullivan), Skip (Paul Pepper), Julie (Mitzie Albertson), and Pam (Brianne Murphy) don’t really look like teenagers. Julie could probably pass for her early 20s. Reg looks like he’s getting close to 40. Pam appears to be about 30. Skip is maybe in his mid-20s. One could chalk that up to bad casting on the part of director Jerry Warren but I like to think that the film is actually commenting on the education system. While most of their contemporaries are out getting jobs and starting careers, these four people have failed their classes so often that they are stuck in permanent teenager mode. They still hang out at the local malt shop and the owner lets them because money is money.

Our four aging teenagers decide to spend the day waterskiing. Woo hoo! What fun! (I don’t water ski because of my morbid fear of drowning but I do like hanging out at the lake and watching other people risk their lives.) During their water skiing adventures, the teens come across a mysterious island. They decide to explore because why not? They’re 30-something teenagers! Life is about taking risks.

The Island turns out to be home to Dr. Myra (Katherine Victor). Dr. Myra, who is apparently working for the Godless communists, has developed a mind-control gas that can turn people into her slaves. Living on the island with Dr. Myra is a hunched over zombie named Ivan the Zombie (Chuck Niles) and a gorilla (Mitch Evans). Gorillas really aren’t native to the United States and, even if they were, I doubt you would find one living on an unchartered island in the middle of a lake but then again, you also don’t find many mad scientists at the lake either. Most mad scientists understand that mountain laboratories are easier to defend than their island equivalent.

With the teens missing, two of their friends go to the local sheriff (Mike Concannon) for help. Unfortunately, it turns out that the sheriff is actually working with Dr. Myra and has been providing her with prisoners to experiment on! All of the teenagers realize that they have to stop Dr. Myra before she perfects her mind control gas and uses it to conquer the world! Unfortunately, the teens themselves are pretty stupid. Their plan for getting Dr. Myra to tell them how to reverse is the process is to put her in the zombie gas chamber herself. What they don’t seem to have considered is that the zombies don’t talk so turning Dr. Myra into a zombie isn’t going to be that helpful.

Teenage Zombies is definitely a film of its time, a low-budget mix of teen hijinks and zombie “horror.” It’s the type of film where the “wild” teens come across as being as wild as a church youth group. My favorite thing about the film is that the climax depends on a random gorilla attack. My second favorite thing is that the teens are told that, if they save America, they might even get a chance to meet the President! Well, I should hope so!

That said, Dwight Eisenhower was pretty cool. If Eisenhower couldn’t inspire those teens to save America, then nobody could.

Horror Film Review: The Monster of the Piedras Blancas (dir by Irvin Berwick)

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome the town of Piedras Blancas, California!

This small town is a sleepy coastal village, one that is dominated by a lighthouse sitting near the coast. The town has a lovely beach and friendly citizens. The storekeeper, Mr. Kocheck (Frank Arvidson), is a bit of a know-it-all. The town constable (Forrest Lewis) has the very easy job of keeping peace in the town. Little Jimmy (Wayne Berwick) is the annoying little kid who everyone in town looks after. Little Jimmy is the type who will walk right into the local store and go behind the counter. What a perfect town!

The only problem, when it comes to Piedras Blancas, is that some of the townspeople are a bit superstitious, especially when it comes to a belief in monsters that stalk the sea and the beach. The lighthouse keeper, Sturges (John Harmon), worries that there is a monster hiding in a nearby cave so he often goes down there and leaves food to keep the monster from attacking the town. Still, Sturges worries about his teenager daughter, Lucille (Jeanne Carmen), who has a habit of going down to the beach at night, stripping down to her underwear, and swimming in the ocean. Seriously, if anything is going to attract a horror movie monster, it’s that!

And there is a monster in the cave and yes, the Monster does eventually go on a rampage. As the bodies start to pile up and some of the town’s most beloved citizens are taken out, local scientist Sam Jorgensen (Les Tremayne) speculates that the creature could be a prehistoric amphibian who has somehow survived into the modern era.

Independently produced and first released in 1959, The Monster of Piedras Blancas was clearly inspired by the success of The Creature From The Black Lagoon, with the boat crew replaced by the citizens of the town and Jeanne Carmen stepping into the role that was played by Julia Adams. The film was produced by Jack Kelvan, who also supervised the creation of the suit that Ricou Browning wore when he played the Gil-Man in The Creature From The Black Lagoon. And just, as with The Creature of Black Lagoon, the monster is the most effective part of The Monster of Piedras Blancas. Here he is!

Now, in close-up and still frame, you can tell that it’s obviously a rubber suit but, when seen in the shadows and stalking people on the beach, the monster is truly menacing. Whether the monster is ripping off someone’s head or carrying around the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, the monster is frightening to watch. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near him. If the Creature From The Black Lagoon was often more misunderstood than malicious, The Monster of Piedras Blancas is just downright mean.

The Monster of Peidras Blancas does a good job of creating an ominous atmosphere, especially in the shots of Sturges heading down to the cave and the panicked townspeople walking through the town while carrying the body of the Monster’s latest victim with them. The film’s pace is a bit slow and the performances are inconsistent but the Monster definitely makes an impression.

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: The Giant Gila Monster (dir by Ray Kellogg)

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1959 film, The Giant Gila Monster, takes place in a small Texas town, where everyone’s either a drunk, a law enforcement officer, or a teenager who wants to go the sock hop. In fact, the teens are so enthused about the sock hop that it takes them a while to notice that two of their friends are missing! What happened to Pat and Liz!?

Well, as we already know what happened because we saw it at the start of the film! Pat and Liz were parked at the ravine, making out in Pat’s car, when they fell victim to a giant Gila monster! Though, if we’re going to be honest …. the monster actually isn’t really a Gila monster. It’s just a really big lizard that was filmed wandering over around a miniature set. It moves very slowly and it sticks out its tongue at the camera. It’s a nice looking lizard but it’s no Gila monster. No matter, though! What’s important is that it’s big, it’s dangerous, and it’s making its way towards the town!

Anyway, the teens eventually figure out that their friends have disappeared and they try to appeal to the town’s useless sheriff to help them find them. The sheriff doesn’t really seem to care though. He’s got an entire town of drunks to deal with. So, it looks like the teens are going to have to save the town themselves!

The Giant Gila Monster is a pretty silly film. It’s a little over 70 minutes long and it’s obvious that the majority of the budget was spent on the cars that the various teenagers drive. It was an independent production, made to be sold to drive-ins around the South. Teenagers in 1959 probably watched the film and honked their car horns whenever the monster showed up. The script is bad, the actors are bad, the direction is bad, but you know what isn’t bad? The fake Gila Monster is actually kind of cute. I mean, we’re told that we shouldn’t like it and that it’s responsible for killing a lot of people but who cares? Whenever it shows up, slowly lumbering its way across the countryside, it’s hard not to admire the determination of the Gila Monster. Though the actors often seem to be confused by their dialogue, the lizard is obviously having the time of its life. Go, Lizard, go!

The Giant Gila Monster is one of those independent 50s monster movies that are pretty much impossible to resist. To its credit, the film does have a sense of humor about itself. It is meant to be a comedy, though most of the laughs are unintentional. And, as I said before, vintage car lovers will enjoy seeing some of the roadsters that pop up in this film. Even with all the classic cars, though, the big lizard in the main attraction. It walks around the miniature desert set as if it owns the place. The star is the monster and that’s really the way things should be.

Finally, The Giant Gila Monster was filmed outside of Dallas. Apparently, the film was funded by none other than Gordon McLendon, who is best-known for founding Dallas’s first talk radio station, KLIF.

Horror On The Lens: The Giant Gila Monster (dir by Ray Kellogg)

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we present to you the 1959 film, The Giant Gila Monster!

As you can tell from the title, this is another one of those big lizard films, which were so popular back in the 50s and early 60s. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, a lizard grows to giant size and it’s up to a bunch teenagers, law enforcement officers, and small town citizens to put nature back in its place!

The Giant Gila Monster was filmed outside of Dallas and it was produced by Gordon McLendon. Now, admittedly, you might not recognize the name but he was one of the most important figures in the history of DFW. McLendon founded KLIF, which is DFW’s top talk radio station. He also once ran for the Senate, as a conservative Democrat. By most accounts that I’ve read, he was a true Texas character so I guess it makes sense that, along with all of his other accomplishments, he would add film producer to the list.

Anyway, enjoy this movie about a giant lizard! Gila monsters, I should add, are freaking scary enough when they’re normal-sized. That said, the lizard in this film is actually a Mexican beaded lizard and not an actual Gila monster.

Enjoy!