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The Monolith Monsters

The Monolith Monsters

Horror · Science Fiction · 1957

Rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

Movie details

The Monolith Monsters

“Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!”

1957 Horror · Science Fiction 1h 17m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

Rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Monolith Monsters?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Tarantula

Tarantula

Sci-fi · 1955

A rogue scientist near a small desert town arouses the suspicion of the town's doctor when his lab assistant is found dead from a case of acromegaly, which took only four days to develop. As the doctor investigates, aided by the scientist's new female assistant, they discover that something is devouring local cattle and humans in increasingly large quantities.

Quatermass 2

Quatermass 2

Sci-fi · 1957

In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.

It Came from Outer Space

It Came from Outer Space

Sci-fi · 1953

Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...

Phase IV

Phase IV

Horror · 1974

Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.

The Blob

The Blob

Horror · 1958

A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.

Silver Bullet

Silver Bullet

Horror · 1985

The small city of Tarker's Mills is startled by a series of sadistic murders. The population fears the work of a maniac, but sightings of a mysterious, hairy creature soon spread. People lock themselves up at night, but there's one boy who's still outside…

Mark of the Vampire

Mark of the Vampire

Mystery · 1935

Sir Borotyn, a prominent Prague resident, is discovered murdered in his home, with all indications pointing to a vampire assault. The victim's friend, Baron Otto, and the physician who analyzes the body, are certain that the vampire is the mysterious Count Mora or his daughter. Receiving little help from the law, Professor Zelen, an expert in the occult, is called in to assist with their investigation.

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

Horror · 1933

After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.

The Stepford Wives

The Stepford Wives

Thriller · 1975

Joanna Eberhart comes to the town of Stepford, Connecticut with her family, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents.

The Arrival

The Arrival

Sci-fi · 1996

Zane Ziminski is an astrophysicist who receives a message that seems to have extraterrestrial origins. Eerily soon after his discovery, Zane is fired. He then embarks on a search to determine the origins of the transmission that leads him into a Hitchcockian labyrinth of paranoia and intrigue.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Sherwood

Written by

Norman Jolley · Robert M. Fresco · Jack Arnold

Grant Williams

Grant Williams

Dave Miller

Lola Albright

Lola Albright

Cathy Barrett

Les Tremayne

Les Tremayne

Martin Cochrane

Trevor Bardette

Trevor Bardette

Prof. Arthur Flanders

W

William Flaherty

Police Chief Dan Corey

Harry Jackson

Harry Jackson

Dr. Steve Hendricks

Richard H. Cutting

Richard H. Cutting

Dr. E.J. Reynolds

Court is in session

Put The Monolith Monsters on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.