Night of the Blood Beast

Roger Corman was an executive producer on Night of the Blood Beast[1]

Night of the Blood Beast was one of several films produced by B movie filmmaker Roger Corman and his brother, Gene Corman. The two also partnered together in making Hot Car Girl (1958), Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and The Premature Burial (1962).[3] Jerome Bixby, the science fiction screenwriter who wrote It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), was originally approached for the job, but Bixby was working on another project and recommended his close friend Martin Varno for the job.[4] Varno, the son of veteran actor Roland Varno,[5] was 21 years old at the time.[6] He met with Roger and Gene Corman, who discussed with him what Varno called "some sort of a weird idea for the picture". They offered Varno a couple hundred dollars for the job, which was below the minimum compensation rates known as "scale", but Varno was not part of the Writers Guild of America at the time and did not know about the guidelines. He accepted the offer and signed a contract.[7] Although Varno had a rough idea it would be a low-budget film, he said the Cormans set no specific guidelines for him: "I gave them the impression that I knew pretty much what I was doing, and they sort of got the idea that I wasn't going to use 50,000 extras and things."[8]

It took about six weeks to write the Blood Beast script.[7] It was written under the working title Creature from Galaxy 27, which was conceived by Varno, but the Corman brothers later changed it to Night of the Blood Beast.[8] Gene Corman received film credit for conceiving the film's story, but Varno claimed he wrote the film almost entirely himself and that Corman had little to do with the story: "He had some rambling ideas but they didn't have very much to do with the movie that became Night of the Blood Beast."[7] Varno also said of him: "Gene didn't open his mouth, really, until Roger told him he could."[8] Varno said he wrote the screenplay alone and showed parts of it to Roger and Gene Corman as he went along. Varno researched medical and aerospace technology at a library in Hollywood near Vine Street.[8] The story, which fictionally portrays America's manned voyage into space,[9] was heavily influenced by the real life Space Race ongoing between the United States and Soviet Union at the time.[7] Gene Corman said another major inspiration was The Thing from Another World (1951), a Howard Hawks-directed science fiction film about a group of soldiers and scientists threatened by an alien creature in a remote Arctic research outpost. He said of the film, "How could you not be [influenced]? We had to be, if only indirectly or subconsciously. That was a classic film then, a classic film today."[10] However, Varno said any influence from The Thing was only subconscious: "I loved some of the scenes in The Thing and I'm sure that crept in one way or another, but not overtly."[11]

Varno said he received uncredited assistance from his friends and fellow screenwriters Jerome Bixby and Harold Jacob Smith, the latter of whom won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Defiant Ones (1958). Varno ran lines and ideas by both men and sought advice. Smith in particular inspired lines for the speech made by the monster at the end of the film, in which the creature discusses how the human characters consider him the embodiment of evil simply because he is different from them. Varno said much of that dialogue from Smith, however, ended up getting cut from the final film.[8] One of the primary themes of the film, as embodied in John Corcoran's attempts to defend the alien creature, was that simply because someone or something is ugly or different does not necessarily make it evil.[6] However, the script also followed a common trait of most horror films of the 1950s that even somewhat understandable monsters are not entirely sympathetic and the Blood Beast creature proves itself evil by impregnating Corcoran against his will and pursuing world domination.[12]

The Cormans cast the film together with director Bernard L. Kowalski, who was 28 years old at the time.[13] Kowalski also directed Roger Corman's Hot Car Girl. Night of the Blood Beast was one of Kowalski's first directorial credits and his first science fiction film, although he later went on to direct Attack of the Giant Leeches.[14] For the Blood Beast cast, they mostly selected actors that had worked on other Roger Corman films. Michael Emmet had worked with Kowalski on the Western television series Boots and Saddles, where Kowalski directed most of the episodes Emmet had a major role in and was impressed with the actor's work ethic. Emmet later starred in the Roger Corman film Attack of the Giant Leeches. Ed Nelson also worked on several Roger Corman films, including Swamp Women (1955), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Teenage Doll (1957) and She Gods of Shark Reef (1958).[15] When asked what Nelson remembered about the film during a 2003 interview, he admitted, "Not much", but he said Roger and Gene Corman were very knowledgeable about film and treated the material "light-heartedly".[13]

The film was shot over seven days with a budget of about $68,000.[16] Both Roger and Gene Corman were present for most of the film's production and involved creatively as well as financially. Gene was more involved with running the day-to-day operations while the more experienced Roger Corman supervised and provided guidance to both Gene and Kowalski.[16] Martin Varno was also present for shooting.[17] They operated out of the Charlie Chaplin Studios,[16] which was called Kling Studios at the time.[4][16] Some rewriting was done as the filming progressed, and director Bernard L. Kowalski called it a collaborative process that involved himself, the Cormans and the whole crew.[16] Varno, however, said he was not happy with how the filming process went and that the Cormans changed dialogue and story elements without his consultation or permission. He said it reached the point where he called his agent and said, "I am not working for these sons of bitches any more! I am sick and tired of the whole thing!"[18]

All of the interior scenes were shot at sound stages inside Kling Studios.[17] Most of the exterior shots were filmed at Bronson Canyon, a set of caves at Griffith Park in Los Angeles that was a popular shooting location for low-budget films.[10][17] The exterior scenes of the tracking station were shot at a television station on Mount Lee, not far from the Hollywood Sign.[10] Varno said it was the first television station built in Los Angeles, but was only being used for emergency broadcasts when Night of the Blood Beast was filmed; it had also been used during World War II to send information and propaganda to the Allied Forces' overseas allies. Varno secured permission to film there simply by calling the city of Los Angeles and asking permission, something he said nobody else considered trying because they assumed the city would not allow it. Varno was familiar with the station because his father, Roland Varno, appeared in the first dramatic television show released in Los Angeles and it was transmitted from that station. For the Night of the Blood Beast shoot, Los Angeles charged a fee of $8 per actor to shoot at the station, but the crew could be any size. All shooting took place outside the station and none inside.[17] Most of the station night scenes there were shot during the day, and the film crew often had to find shadows to shoot in or block out the sun to give the impression of nighttime. Gene Corman said of the shooting: "That was one of the more mobile units I've ever been involved with. Normally, everybody chases the sun; we were chasing the shadows."[10]

The alien costume featured in Night of the Blood Beast was the same as the one used in another Roger Corman film, Teenage Caveman (1958). This was done to save money, as the Cormans often tried to incorporate existing sets, costumes and other elements from previous films into new ones for financial savings.[15] Varno said the Corman brothers were so conscious of their spending that "'cheap' was the main word in their vocabulary".[8] The monster costume scenes in Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast were shot within about two weeks of each other. The costume was modified slightly for Blood Beast; Varno claimed somebody on the set said "the nose looks too Jewish", so it was cut down slightly to more resemble a beak.[11] Ross Sturlin wore the costume for the scenes in both Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast. Filming was very difficult for Sturlin because it grew extremely hot inside the costume during the exterior shots.[6][11] John Mathew Nickolaus, Jr. was director of photography for the film and Jack Bohrer was the production manager.[19] Daniel Haller, who went on to become a film director himself, worked as art director on Night of the Blood Beast. Haller did much of the manual construction work on the set himself, and brought a trailer in to the sound stage so he could sleep there and between work sessions.[16] Among the props he built was the rocket ship, the frame of which was made of plywood that had been cut into circles, then covered with a plastic sheet and spray-painted to look metallic. Haller also created blood cells that the characters looked at under a microscope and the baby aliens (which resembled seahorses) they looked at under a fluoroscope.[6] Alexander Laszlo composed the music for the film.[20] Almost the entire crew went on to work on Attack of the Giant Leeches with the Corman brothers and Kowalski.[15]

Advertisement from 1958 for Night of the Blood Beast and co-feature, She Gods of Shark Reef.

Night at the Blood Beast was distributed by American International Pictures.[24] It was test-screened for audiences in unadvertised sneak previews, in which audiences attending a different film were surprised with a screening of Night of the Blood Beast instead. Coincidentally, Martin Varno attended one of these sneak previews without any advance knowledge of what it was. The screening was also attended by Roger and Gene Corman, who were not pleased by Varno's presence. It was the first time the screenwriter had seen the completed film, which he did not enjoy, and he said of watching it: "On my left side was sitting Forry Ackerman, and on my right side was sitting Jerry Bixby. And their main job was to keep my hands held down so I wouldn't cut my throat."[19] During its theatrical release, Night of the Blood Beast was a double feature co-billed with She Gods of Shark Reef.[20] The film was released in December 1958.[1]

John L. Flynn, a Towson University English professor who has written extensively about science-fiction film, unfavorably compared Night of the Blood Beast to The Creeping Terror (1964), which was also about an astronaut returning from space with a stowaway alien creature. Although Flynn said it lacked the "epic pretentiousness" of that film, he nevertheless said of Night of the Blood Beast: "Corman made a career out of making cheap knock-offs of popular films, but he seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel here".[24] The Washington Post writer Tom Shales said "it would be hard to find a worse movie" and that the monster "looks like the San Diego Chicken after having been tarred and feathered".[25] Film critic and historian Steven H. Scheuer said the plot was a good idea but criticized what he called a "sloppy execution".[26] Literary and film critic John Kenneth Muir said he considered the film a failure because the monster "simply could not live up to expectations once revealed".[27] Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars with the entry: "Well directed, but too low budget to succeed."[28] Night of the Blood Beast was among several films universally considered terrible that film reviewer Michael Adams watched as part of a book about his quest to find the worst film of all time. However, Adams said he enjoyed it on a B movie level, calling it "cheap but enjoyable and buoyed by its ideas".[9] John Stanley, who hosted the San Francisco television show Creature Features about science fiction films, said Night of the Blood Beast deliberately imitated the best scenes from The Thing from Another World.[29] Chris Eggerston of Bloody Disgusting wrote that the alien in the film "looks like a human-sized parrot covered in feces" and ranked it as the fifth worst movie monster of all time. However, he said that the film's idea of an alien impregnating a human being was an "interesting concept," noting that it was reused in Ridley Scott's Alien.[30]

• Adams, Michael (2010). Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest to Find the Worst Movie Ever Made. It Books. ISBN 978-0-06-180629-2.
• Beaulieu, Trace; et al., eds. (1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. New York City, New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
• Flynn, John L. (2005). War of the Worlds: From Wells to Spielberg. Galactic Books. ISBN 0-9769400-0-0.
• Maltin, Leonard, ed. (2004). Leonard Maltin's 2005 Movie Guide. New York City, New York: Plume. ISBN 0-452-28592-5.
• Miller, Cynthia J. (2011). ""Remember: Only you can prevent Roger Corman": The King of the Bs Under Siege". In Weiner, Robert G.; Barba, Shelley E. (eds.). In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-4532-5.
• Muir, John Kenneth (2007). Horror Films of the 1970s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3104-5.
• Sanders, Clinton R. (1999). Loukides, Paul; Fuller, Linda K. (eds.). Beyond the Stars 2: Plot Conventions in American Popular Film. Popular Press 1. ISBN 0-87972-517-6.
• Scheuer, Steven H., ed. (1990). Movies on TV and Videocassette 1991–1992. New York City, New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-28801-6.
• Stanley, John (1988). Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide: An A to Z Encyclopedia to the Cinema of the Fantastic, or, Is There a Mad Doctor in the House? (3 ed.). Creatures at Large. ISBN 0-940064-04-9.
• Weaver, Tom (1999). Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0755-7.
• Weaver, Tom (2007). Eye on Science Fiction: 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3028-4.
• Weaver, Tom (2003). Double Feature Creature Attack: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1366-2.
• Young, R.G. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Applause Books. ISBN 1-55783-269-2.