The Human Monster
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Movie Reviews of The Human Monster
Movie Review: Eerie and strange
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this movie late one night on TV about 35 years ago as a child, and some of the images haunt me still! Lugosi is really quite good here, and the whole thing is set in an eerie, impoverished home for the blind...this creates a dark, disorienting, atmosphere of helplessness. Watch for the trap door that drops victims into the Thames River mud flats! Lugosi's creepy man/beast henchman is the stuff of children's nightmares....OK, now to address the Alpha DVD quality. No, it's not great. It could be better. But let's face it: as kids we watched these things on grainy black & white TV sets with bent rabbit ear antennas! You could hold your breath for the "Collector's Edition", (at a price 4x more) but you're simply not going to see this film anywhere else. The DVD is ridiculously cheap. If you hate it, then donate it to your local library for a tax write-off.
Movie Review: More Monster Than Human...
Summary: 4 Stars
Bela Lugosi is perfectly eeevil as Dr. Orloff, part-time insurance salesman / full-time con-man and murderer! Orloff has been setting people up w/ fat life insurance policies, only to kill the poor suckers after making himself their sole beneficiary! With the help of his blind, giant henchman, Jake, Orloff has been busily dumping his victims into the Thames! Orloff's utter contempt for the human race is very convincing! Will he be stopped before more people perish?? Scotland Yard is on the case! HUMAN MONSTER is one of Bela's best movies, along w/ WHITE ZOMBIE, DRACULA, THE BLACK CAT, THE RAVEN, and MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. Belongs on every horror shelf...Movie Review: The problem is revealed by the title...
Summary: 2 Stars
... and a good ending cannot overcome it.There is no supernatural foe to drag us through the tepid parts, and a somewhat interesting yet slow mystery is not enough to make us sit without fidgeting. Especially not when the quality of the print is poor.
The Human Monster is smarter than most of this type of fare, as it is based on an Edgar Wallace novel. But like most of this type of fare, nothing of any real note happens until the last fifteen minutes. Then it gets quite good, with chases and plot twists and the expected, if satisfying, retribution. Yet by that point the damage is done.
As a movie, the Human Monster makes a very good poster.
See also: "The Monogram Nine," as they are known to Lugosi's most ardent.
Movie Review: Alpha's "Human Monster" No Bargain
Summary: 1 Stars
"The Human Monster," a British horror film from 1939 starring Bela Lugosi, is a recent DVD release from Alpha Video. Its packaging is attractive, featuring artwork from the original release of the film, and its price is essentially pocket change, but sadly the positive qualities of this product stop there.While I feel inclined to commend the producers of this DVD for trying to market this Lugosi semi-classic, a sixty-plus year old film with limited sales potential, after viewing the DVD I can't help but to regret my purchase and recommend that you don't make my same mistake...even if the cost of the product is minimal.
Technically speaking, even if a film is old there's still little justification for it to look bad or sound bad...and certainly not as bad as this film looks and sounds on this DVD. The images appear flat and grainy; cinematic shadows "pulse" frequently; scratches in the film abound; and one must make a conscious effort to hear the soundtrack in many parts.
Perhaps Alpha Video would argue that this particular movie would never sell enough units to justify the cost of a proper restoration--though this viewpoint would be in conflict with The Roan Group's superbly restored release of "White Zombie" and any number of Universal DVD releases featuring Lugosi--but, as it is, this particular DVD release of "The Human Monster" fails to satisfy the viewer due to a gross lack of image and audio quality.
The ultimate tragedy here is that, unlike some of Bela's poverty row pictures, most fans of Lugosi and this genre would agree that this is a respectable picture that offers the typecast actor a rare dramatic opportunity...and one he does well with! It's a shame that such a poor quality print of the movie is used.
Poor Bela fans.
Movie Review: Unwatchable
Summary: 1 Stars
Excellent low budget Lugosi film, but the Alpha version is terrible. Like a 25 year old VHS, the image changes from light to very dark constantly and the soundtrack is muffled throughout. Look for a copy of the Roan double feature (w/Mystery Liner) or the Diamond double feature (w/The Ape Man). Both are much better prints. This is a total waste. Cover sure looks nice, though.