The Unknown Terror (1957)
A woman leads an expedition into a remote jungle to find her long-lost brother, but instead finds a mad scientist who has created a fungus monster that feeds on the local inhabitants.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
the leading man is my tpye
Who payed the critics
Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Not too bad B-grade late 50's horror film. A trio of Americanos head for a Latin-American country where a family member disappeared while exploring a mysterious cave. When they get to their destination they find surly, silent locals, threats, no cooperation, and a thoroughly creepy, somewhat mad doctor who resides there for the excellent conditions for fungi. It seems the reason the natives are completely rattled is that there is a cave there. It's full of fungi that drips all over like a waterfall of oatmeal and victims, consigned there by our mad doc, who've become walking fungi freaks. A weird time is had by all.
It's the old genre. Some guy has gotten himself trapped in some horrible caves in South America. His sister sets up an expedition to find him. They go to the Cave of Death. But there is an American doctor playing God who is in the way. He knows the superstitions of the native population. He is evil. Hs is also an expert at fungus. His experiments have led to a horrible mess in the caves that threatens the world. Off go the rescuers but they end up facing a group of mutants and an unending explosion of fungus. Actually, it looks like someone went crazy with giant bottle of dishwashing soap. This stuff absorbs human tissue. One problem is that the people are able to understand what they are facing, even though they shouldn't. It is a fight for survival with some scenes of bravery. An OK B-movie. Lots of overacting.
An explorer looking for the legendary "Cave of the Dead" doesn't return. So his sister, "Gina Matthews" (Mala Powers) and her husband, "Dan Matthews" (John Howard) decide to set out to look for him. Before they depart, a former acquaintance of both named "Pete Morgan" (Paul Richards) convinces them to let him come with them since he is an experienced spelunker. When they get to the village in South America where the cave is supposed to be near, they meet a strange American doctor, "Dr. Ramsey" (Gerald Milton) who denies knowing anything about it. At any rate, rather than detailing the entire story I will just say that this horror film is an obvious product of its time. And even though it is clearly a B-movie it isn't that bad. That said, while it isn't that scary it does manage to keep the suspense going for the most part. Recommended only for those who enjoy B-movies from the 50's.
As others have noted, this is not great, but not terrible. There is something about it that just makes it fun to watch. I, too, remember it from my youth on Dr. Shock (a Philly-based horror movie show).I recently scored a DVD copy of the film and thoroughly enjoyed it after a 35 year hiatus. I still enjoyed it.It's one of those movies in which you can see that they spent some money on it, made sure to use real actors who were decent, write a decent script, and make sure they used good sets and locations.Also, like others, the main thing I remember is the fungus. Oozing down cave walls, looking a bit like bath bubbles with an attitude! Fun stuff.