Product Details

• Actors: Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne, Trevor Bardette, Phil Harvey
• Directors: John Sherwood
• Writers: Jack Arnold, Norman Jolley, Robert M. Fresco
• Producers: Howard Christie
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: October 1, 1996
• Run Time: 77 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303046444
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,749 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

First off, be advised that the Monolith Monsters are not really monsters in the conventional sense (meaning a guy in a hideous rubber suit wreaking havoc). That having been said, this is still a very effective, standout Fifties sci-fi film. A meteor crashes near a desert town, and the fragments of the meteor crystallize very quickly when exposed to water. They also suck the moisture from humans, turning them stiff as boards. The rocks (black and shiny, like obsidian) grow to great heights and fall over from their own weight, with each shard of the rock starting the process over again. Of course, a thunderstorm accelerates everything. It's up to the townspeople to stop the advance of the menace before it overruns everything. Based on a story by Jack Arnold (director of Creature from the Black Lagoon), Monolith's production values are very good for the time, with the huge, menacing black rocks sometimes resembling the Chrysler Building. There are plenty of recognizable character actors to be seen, and a sense of pacing and tension that's above average for the genre. With its inventive premise, The Monolith Monsters is quite a bit better than the usual cheapo drive-in sci-fi from the mid-Fifties. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Where's The DVD??, February 6, 2006

By 

Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Monolith Monsters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Enough with the "science" of the Monolith Monsters!! Who cares if it's goofy science, bad geology or whatever (like "The Day After Tomorrow" or "Deep Impact" is any more realistic)! This is a great movie, with decent special effects and a truly fun story. This movie is a great way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon. Like the best of the 50's sci-fi, you have a really original story where rocks are threatening to destory the surface of the Earth, you have a great musical score that really drives the action, top notch acting also raises "Monolith Monsters" above the usual B-Movie schlock. I loved when the VHS tape came out and featured the original theatrical trailer at the beginning. It seems Universal gave quite a few of their 50's sci-fi/horror films a decent treatment in the mid 90's with these releases. Films like "Monolith Monsters", "The Night Walker", "Tarantula", "The Deadly Mantis", etc. never looked better than with these restored versions, and the movie trailers were a great addition. So Universal....where are the DVD versions? It's obvious some care and attention were given to these films with their last VHS release, so why not just pump them out on DVD? As a fan of the genre I would be willing to plunk down the money to get the latest and greatest versions of these films. Or better yet give us box set similar to what was done with the "Frankenstein" & "Wolfman" movies.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MOST COMPELLING PHALLIC IMAGERY IN CINEMA, October 8, 1999

By 

David White (Meriden, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monolith Monsters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

...for what that's worth. Like the last reviewer, I saw it at a very early age. Thirty years later (channel flipping at 1 am), I recognized it instantly--from nothing more than the opening scene of a car moving down a desert highway. It must be a very special movie that something like that should happen--twice, judging from saxsdad's review. And forget the allegory-for-the-communist-threat hypothesis: that's a (thankfully discredited) analysis of 50's sci-fi that began in the paraniod imaginings of professors paid on the side by the column inch. Nevertheless, Monolith Monsters abounds in rich Freudian imagery (this last to film students hard-up for a paper topic). And it has all the elements of classic Hollywood 50's sci-fi: it takes place in the DESERT, there are Scientifical Experiments and Explanations, it has Alien Monsters, and High-Technology (albeit an iron lung)--all except radiation (being the California desert, not NM). The B/W photography rounds out Monolith Monster's bona fides. Get it while you still can. Whenever you have an apartment that needs cleaning, dishes that need washing, or a paper due in the morning, you'll never tire of watching this instead.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best B-Films, June 28, 2004

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monolith Monsters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This was the second monster movie I ever saw (right after Them!). Not I have it in my collection and it is better than I remembered.

A small mining town is in danger when a mysterious meteorite falls in the nearby mountains. Black rocks, unexplained deaths and destruction soon follow. Soon the truth is learned as it is discovered that the meteorite is a deadly menace. When the stone comes in contact with water is absorbs the silicates in the area and grows into a Column. Once tall enough, the column topples and shatters creating new pieces to grow and shatter.

Just as the menace is discovered the region experiences a torrential downpour. Gigantic columns of rock begin to tumble down a mountain pass towards the town. An evacuation is put into effect while a method of stopping the crushing rocks is searched for. People who come in contact with the rocks are paralyzed as their silicates are removed. A cure used on a small girl with a paralyzed arm leads to the breakthrough in stopping the monoliths. The only way to stop them before they destroy the town is to blow up the local dam so that it washes salt from the salt mine into the path of the approaching towers.

Although the idea of falling rocks used as monsters seems a bit lame, the movie works (if you ignore the science and biology). Better acting than is found in most monster movies contributes to the films success along with excellent special effects and genuine suspense. The Monolith Monsters should be added to the collection of any monster movie fan.