The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Best movie ever!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Jessica Burns (lovely Carolyn Kearney) is a young woman with strong psychic ability, living with others on her Aunt Flavias' (Peggy Converse) farm. One day, her dowsing rod leads her to a buried treasure chest. Alas, what is in the chest is not treasure, but the still living decapitated head of Gideon Drew (Robin Hughes), a 16th Century Satan worshipper. Drew is able to malevolently control some of the characters, while enlisting them to search for the rest of his body, buried somewhere else on the property.You can really tell that this drive-in movie was done on the cheap, but that in itself is NOT a strike against it. Unfortunately, the story (written by David Duncan) is kind of dull, with too much emphasis placed on the melodrama between most of our cast. Produced and directed by Will Cowan (his final feature film), it's never as schlocky, creepy, or as much FUN as one might like it to be. That's not to say, of course, that it doesn't have its moments. The sight of Drews' head in the hand of gargantuan, simpleton farmhand Mike (Charles Horvath) is amusing, and the climactic confrontation (which is resolved awfully quickly) is a hoot, as Drew surveys with contempt his determined human opponents.The acting is not great, but it's appropriate for this sort of thing. Kearney is a little much when she's required to play the indignant, virtuous girl; she's more fun when her innocence is corrupted by Drews' influence. William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Ms. Converse, James Anderson, Mr. Horvath, and Forrest Lewis are all okay, but it's easily Hughes who gives the best performance as the "thing" within this movie.It does kill roughly 70 minutes in painless enough fashion.Six out of 10.

"The Thing that Couldn't Die" actually turned out to be a very pleasant surprise! I was expecting a totally cheap, insignificant and rather silly Z-grade horror flick, but what I got was … Well, I got a totally cheap, insignificant and rather silly Z-grade horror flick, but one that was vastly more entertaining than I thought! The film has a compelling plot, albeit familiar and simplistic, and the atmosphere and special effects are far more unsettling and spooky that I expected for a camp 50's flick like this. Jessica is a shy but beautiful young girl with psychic powers who lives on the Californian guest ranch of her aunt. With her dowsing rod she discovers an antique chest buried deep underneath a tree. Jessica feels that the content of the chest is evil, but her aunt and all the guests at the ranch insist on opening it anyway. The chest contains the bodiless head of a medieval Satanist, and it promptly possesses some of the guest with his penetrating eyes and hypnotizing powers. The head naturally wants to recover its body, which is buried elsewhere on the premises, in order to continue his evil Satan-worshiping activities. Particularly the scenes with the head are effectively creepy and atmosphere. Whether carried by a minion or stored in a hat-box, the head is scary! The actor depicting the head also looks a lot like Vincent Price. The makers of this cheap flick perhaps couldn't afford to hire Vincent Price, but at least they understood that the role required loads of evil charisma and thus opted for the Argentinian born lookalike Robin Hughes. Furthermore the film contains a couple of admirable footnotes, like for example a link with the famous naval commander Sir Francis Drake, and a reasonably good pacing. And, oh yeah, the ending is downright hilarious! This film has the biggest "What … that's it?!?" climax in the history of cinema. Turns out "the thing that couldn't die" dies pretty easily after all.

Yes,the movie is not a piece of art but the first time I watched it I was 10 years old,my parents were out and I stayed home with my two brothers.It was May 1970(I know that because I found a note about the cycle of horror movies that one network had).It's one of the most vivid memories I have with the guys.We ended all in one bed and covered up to the head! Our very first horror movie! We kept talking about it for years and laughing about the moment.Those were horror movies.Nowadays horror movies are always the same.Or was it better when we were kids enjoying without analyzing the plot and the cast and the dialogs? Most sure it was that.But for me this is a great movie!

During this period of movie history, studios were making movies to lure young people to drive-ins and walk-in theaters. Usually, the studios didn't care what was on the screen, because most young people would use the opportunity to make out. For those that managed to watch the film, they were usually treated to creepy horror. One film in particular is "The Thing That Couldn't Die." Jessica has a psychic skill that allows her to find things. One thing that she finds is a box that contains the head of Gideon Drew. As many moviegoers can figure out, the head is STILL alive, and wants Jessica to find his body. Seems that Drew was a devil worshiper and was beheaded, his body buried separately from his head.The film has some interesting points, but it was strictly made for drive-in audiences: enough to keep the little ones quiet, and enough to push the teens into the back seat. Great for a Saturday night fun fest.