In order to make a 1950s horror or sci-fi movie, basically you needed a monster costume. That’s about it. From Hell It Came, which premiered today in 1957 and for which you see a promo poster in three sheet format above, has a very good monster. Too bad the rest of the movie is so very bad. It’s a half-baked tropical drama with two main plot threads: an unjustly killed tribesman vows to return as a revenant called the Tabonga; and several do-gooder doctors are in the area trying to eradicate a plague. The tribesman actually does come back—and the Tabonga turns out to be a living tree. See below:
A lot of ’50s monsters looked like two dudes under a shag rug, but this Tabonga is pretty scary. Which is why it’s absurd that when the doctors find this abomination growing in the native graveyard they bring it back to their lab, probe it with stethoscopes and poke it with needles, utterly baffled—but in no way terrified—that the hideous thing has a vaguely humanoid form and a heartbeat. They really deserve to die, but they don’t. Because it’s the 1950s. Various natives get croaked, though. Because it’s the 1950s.
From Hell It Came is as wooden as its malevolent tree. It’s at least a six beer movie—that’s the absolute minimum you’ll need to make it enjoyable. Everything is off with this cinematic calamity. The script is atrocious. The music is insane. And all the natives are white. But maybe it’s actually good that not a single tribal role went to a person of color. If they had, the movie would be seen today as intolerably bigoted. It’s still cringeworthy, but at least no brown SAG members had to sacrifice pride and credibility to earn a meager paycheck. Our recommendation: Don’t see the forest or the tree.
Hi, humans. Bad movie, no doubt, but a small point in its favor. As you know, we bears like to rub our butts on trees. The Tabonga would make a nice rubbin’ tree.
