The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)

You won't be disappointed!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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 takes place on the California coast several centuries apart. The film concerns Satan worship and what Sir Francis Drake did about it on his round the world voyage which some have said made him the first European to see the coast of California.Where today Andra Martin resides on Aunt Peggy Converse's ranch with plans to marry boyfriend William Reynolds. She's a girl with psychic gifts and feels something evil on the ranch.The evil is a head and body buried in separate places some 300 years earlier by Sir Francis Drake who discovered one of his crew Robin Hughes in league with the Devil and worshiping him on the ship. Besides being a daring sailor and privateer without peer, Sir Francis Drake was a thoroughgoing Protestant and champion of the Reformation. He has Hughes executed by decapitation and as they do in these movies say if head and body are joined Hughes will rise again and lead the forces of darkness.Well the skull is found and the head of Hughes is intact and forcing several people on the ranch to his will once they see him. Two deaths occur before Good does triumph over Evil.This is a decent horror film although the Seventies spawned a slew devil worship films and compared to those bloody things this one is mild. But the atmosphere created is good and murky. I only wish Robin Hughes had a bit more to do. His character was a rich one and I'll bet that since this film only runs 69 minutes a lot of him was left on the cutting room floor.Fans of the spooky horror genre will like The Thing That Couldn't Die.

On a California farm, folks uncover the served head of an evil colonial man which begins to possess people.A rather inventive story makes this old B film a stand out from the other monster flicks of its day. Director Will Cowan gives this film some compact direction, making a nicely dark atmosphere for the movie, even creating some occasional eeriness and a few good shocks along the way. The music score for this film is the same spooky score used for the sci-fi classic This Island Earth (1955). The cast is pretty good, Hughes is especially good as the films non-deceased villain. Not a bad watch for those looking for a B flick that's a little different from the average rubber-monster movie.** 1/2 out of ****

Pretty scary to me when I saw it as a kid, and then I thought it was quite interesting when seen on AMC (yes, on AMC) a couple of years ago. The premise is a good one, disembodied living head of centuries old warlock is dug up and exerts mind control over all, while looking for it's body. It has quite a nice, sudden ending that reminded me of Hitchcock (not in style, only in the fact that it ended rather unexpectedly - for an example, see Family Plot again) but with a neat anticlimax, one that predates the typical anticlimax of modern fright films. I won't spoil it by telling it, but if you can see this film and remember that it was made in 1958, then you'll enjoy it. If your idea of what's scary is Alien, or anything after that, then forget it, you'll probably be bored or laugh inappropriately. Not that Alien isn't scary, but that's a whole different generation of horror.