Synopsis
All-Devouring Carnivorous Trees That Move On Their Own Roots!
US Navy battles monsters unearthed from the frozen arctic.
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
1966 Directed by Michael A. Hoey
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USA
01 Nov 1966
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An anachronism even when released in 1966, this is a movie which seems to have been made in the 1950s.
Based on a novel, The Monster from Earth's End (1959), it has The Thing (1951 film) and John Wyndam's 1951 Day of the Triffids novel as obvious inspirations. No wonder it seems so quaint. Sadly, it fails to live up to its muses and delivers a film that is best used as fodder to drift off to sleep in the wee hours.
Director Michael Hoey claimed that the producers tampered and added over ten minutes of padding so the film could make money in syndication. Even with this interference ruining Hoey's pacing, the writing and production values would still sink the ship.
Mamie Van Doren gives it some cult appeal but it remains a mildly interesting monster movie misfire.
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Nearing the thirty minute mark, a character says "At the risk of boring you..." and the MST3K part of my brain called out "too late!".
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Another fucking snooze fest don't even bother. And also misleading title there are no monsters in this shit can't believe this was released in theaters
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Dim your expectations to low and you might just enjoy The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, as I did. I seem to be of the minority as a result.
There's more than a little of The Thing in this one, though apparently originated from a different literary source.
From the Antarctic ice, military scientists extract long-frozen plant life. And from above the ice, penguins.
The vegetation thaws into acid-dripping omnivorous monster trees that have to be doused with napalm in the end.
Sorry...spoiler.
And Mamie Van Doren, who really wasn't a bad actress, if you ask me.
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A Navy R4D transport plane crashes on an island with a military base, it's got stowaway monsters. Time to fight them with 45 automatics and M1 carbines in this loose knockoff of The Thing.
Mamie Van Doran is probably the biggest name in the cast in this unremarkable film that could have been made in 1954, not 1965. The romance subplot is forced and lame.
There's monsters that look like they were slapped together in 20 minutes, the whole production is cheap and ugly.
The crash scene shows what looks like a C46 Commando doing a wheels up landing instead of an R4D, the Navy version of the reliable DC-3.
Film #702 of 2020.
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All the usual 1960’s monster flick pitfalls are there: comedy that one would not dare call “comedy”, romance that’s about as hot as a frozen chicken you told your mom you’d take out of the freezer first thing in the morning, endless talking and a general lack of action keeping the viewers at home nice and drowsy. Having said that, it’s about killer trees and I have no idea why, but I love killer trees. From first reading about that Central-American nightmare the Yateveo to the crap-classic From Hell it Came, I got a soft spot for the damn things. Give me some violent vegetation or an angry triffid and I’ll be grinning like a damn fool. Also, Mamie Van…
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60s sci-fi that felt a little late to the party as if it should have been made in black and white in the 50s. Standard fare that draws on all the elements of a 50s drive-in mystery mutant monster movie. These are the sorts of movies that scared me more than gore and other sorts of movies where a lot of people don't make it. Nothing really more unsettling to me than a movie where victims are eaten alive, and when it comes to the Night Monsters, it's one of the least-savory ways to go.
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What it says on the lid.
Stock footage, Mimi Van Doren with a insane hairstyle
Wobbly acid tree monsters what’s not to like
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Mamie Van Doren and some sailors fight killer bugs and some stupid looking killer trees that stumble around on an island = Fun, but quite awful.
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With a title like this, you are not expecting much and you don't get much. On the other hand since Mamie Van Doren gets top billing you expect a little sizzle and a fair amount of screen time. You get neither. Seemingly, she owed Roger Corman another film and this is what she got. She had nothing good to say about it afterwards. Not that many of her 1960's films have anything good to say about them, This is for example a whole lot better than 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt but then so is a punch in the eye. Mamie stays well secured and bundled up from beginning to the end. And on an island with a…
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Celebrate Arbor Day or Else
This is a cheap imitation of The Thing From Another World but set in a much more accessible climate, a tropical island that looks suspiciously like Malibu Creek Canyon. The movie starts off really strong with a mysterious plane crash carrying specimens from an unknown portion of the Antarctic having lost most of its crew and passengers. You get real big At the Mountains of Madness vibes from the opening twenty minutes or so. But the movie suffers from a critical problem, a lack of budget. This is a Roger Corman el-cheapo sci-fi movie, even Roger Corman didn’t want his name attached and was uncredited as a producer. The killer trees look cheap as hell…