The Slime People :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

There's a movie in there somewhere behind all that fog

2004-01-09
Here's my take on The Slime People. There's a group of guys sitting around the studio trying to come up with a movie idea, one that won't be rejected like all of their previous submissions. From out of nowhere, the fog machine goes haywire and won't shut off, and the studio has to send everyone home. Before a tech can get there to fix the thing, though, these would-be filmmakers decide that this is the chance they've been dreaming of; they have to move quick, though, before someone fixes the machine. They quickly decide to make a monster movie; naturally, since this is the early 1960s, atomic testing will be used to explain how the whole mess is really our own fault and not the monsters'. But what kind of monster should it be? Someone yells out - "I know, let's make it slime people." Since the repairman is on his way and no one has a better idea, they go for it. This is what they came up with: these slime people have been living underground and in our sewers for a very long time; nuclear testing has put a burr in their collective saddle so they have come up top to take over our world - well, Los Angeles, anyway. They've got this machine that makes fog, and this fog lowers the temperature enough so that they can survive above ground; then there's a wall, a wall somehow made out of the fog, which seals the whole city within an impenetrable barrier. Brilliant, they all say - all but one - and get right to work. Mr. "Rain On Our Parade" keeps asking questions: What are we going to use to make the wall? Why do these Slime People all look strangely like Bigfoot? Why is there no slime actually involved here? You know the type. Look, they explain, it doesn't matter how dumb the monsters look, and we don't even have to build a fake wall at all - there's fog all over the place. People won't even be able to see the heroes half the time, much less the crummy sets and ridiculous monster outfits. Mr. Pessimist nods and then asks how apparently reptilian creatures, being cold-blooded, could survive beneath the earth and why, if they came aboveground, they would want to lower the temperature rather than raise it for their own comfort and survival. Don't worry about it, kid, they say; one of our characters is going to be a professor; when you have a professor in your film, you can say and do whatever you want. If the professor says it's so, the audience will believe it. The rest, as they say, is bad movie history.

Maybe this isn't exactly how The Slime People came about, but it might as well have been. In many respects, it's your typical old monster-type movie, only this one has extra helpings of fog hiding a lot of what is supposedly happening. The whole thing is rather silly, really, yet The Slime People proves somewhat entertaining in spite of itself in a B horror movie sort of way.

Where is the soundtrack??? 2003-12-07
Beware! The Rhino DVD does not include the soundtrack. Let me qualify that statement; it has an incidental sound effects track, but not the dialogue track.

I sent it back to Rhino, but they only sent along another silent copy. I asked them to check it out before they replaced it, but ...... I'm not going to ship back to Rhino; I already spent more than this turkey is worth and am not going to pay the shipping charges again.

It's a shame as someone had done a great job on cleaning up the video-excellent clear and crisp visuals. A lot of effort for nought....a movie that appeals only to the lovers of bad films and rubber-suited monsters (you know who you are).

If Rhino ever fixes their mistake, will someone please let me know?

Bad sound 2003-03-02
This is definitely one of those so bad it's good movies. I've got quite a few other DVDs that would fall into the same category and love 'em all. HOWEVER,,,, on this one the sound was so bad that it pretty much ruined the movie for me. One channel had mostly hissing coming from it. I'm wondering if it might be just a bad copy,,,but I kinda doubt it.

Fart creatures from below 2002-05-22
I enjoyed this movie, taking place in a real foggy dew pointed
los angeles. The story is humans have been [messing] around again with radiation h-bomb tests etc kinda making it hard for the slime people to live underground.
anyway the slime people emerge up from underground and make the atmosphere to their liking raising the temp dew point etc.
the last few survivors battle the creatures.(now here's the fun
part) they make sounds like farting and burping at the same time
while they fight the humans hand to hand
all in all an enjoyable flick
the makers could have gone further with the plot though

Cannot watch a DVD title with no dialog track! 2001-09-29
I was sooooo excited to see that Rhino Video was finally releasing this schlock 1962 B&W C-grade Sci-Fi/Horror gem, having worn out 2 VHS video copies of it. I grew up with this title, and it's still FABULOUS-as bottom-shelf as it gets. However, when I received my copy, it had no audible dialog track for the actors! I contacted Rhino for a replacement, having told them about the problem. After sending back the original copy at my own expense, I received a replacement approx. 1 mo. later. It too contained no dialog track. The sound track for the ambient sound (background/sound effects/musical score) is there, and the picture/transfer print is nice, but without dialog, it is thoroughly unwatchable. All in all, the most unsatisfying experience I have had with ANY DVD product ever. I don't know if I just happened to score the "mother lode" with 2 defective copies out of thousands, or what. I do know that I tried all available audio setting combinations available on my DVD player, and none would make the dialog track audible. I compared other DVD's to it on every setting imaginable, and they all worked flawlessly. I would say that the quality control of Rhino products is deplorable, and that their customer service dept's. cheif aim is to get you off of their backs. I give up. I'll get another VHS copy.
-Steven & Ateusa Cappello-Oregon

SlimeTime 2008-04-15
OK, if you're reading this you know you'd probably enjoy this movie regardless of the reviews. (I really hate when non genre fans give this type of movie negative reviews, you either "get it" or you don't). As I began watching this I thought to myself that perhaps "The Mist" took some inspiration from this film, in both films a fog (or mist) envelopes a city and a small group of people must fight to survive. That's where the parallels stop. The Mist was a great movie and The Slime People is more of the so bad its good type of "B" movie. Its probably on par with the better known Hideous Sun Demon and Giant Gila Monster. I must admit the creature outfits aren't too shabby either; so grab some popcorn and enjoy!

CAMPY 50'S STYLE SCI-FI JUST THE WAY I LIKE EM! 2007-03-07
First off, I would like to say I had not seen this film in years before buying this DVD version. My copy had no audio or video problems like some have stated in their reviews. I know this is not considered a good movie, but for some reason....I like it! It is silly and the Slime People choking at the end is hysterical. When they were falling to the ground, I expected the poor creatures to kick their legs in the air! LOL! Some nights, I'm up late and this goofy old stuff is just what the doctor orderd!

Horribly Entertaining But Somehow Charming 2005-08-13
My teenage daughter said she was bored after watching Amadeus and wanted to see something more upbeat. After reading the back of video boxes, many video and DVD boxes she seemed very taken with this one. "2 shapely daughters", really got her interested and as I rewound this epic she speculated aloud just what those two charming daughters might be like and what heroic things they might do. Well, she was not disappointed and though I was a bit tired of this flick after 50 minutes she begged to see the last 26 minutes.

Is it interesting? Well, she compared the format to "The Night of The Living Dead", where the poor isolated "Normal" humans get surrounded by monsters shrouded in darkness and mystery and in this case quite a bit of fog. Also, 2 men and two shapely women as promised on the back of the box. To her, what could possibly be more interesting than that. There was plenty of what every "B Horror Flick" needs, ridiculous mystery monsters, boys meet girls and exposition lumped via conveniently on hand TV news broadcasts. Add to that my daughter's favorite scene, 1 lunatic carrying a goat [Les Tremayne formerly seen in "War of The World's" as General Mann and 30+ other films] and a few crazed drunkards soon to be skewered by the javelin wielding slime people just so we can see they mean business. The high tech fog wall machine that created the isolation of LA and our characters dilemma very much resembled a gigantic pulsating beach ball, but it was charming like the rest of the movie. If we had any questions the 2 charming young girls came with a rather grandfatherly scientist dad who answered all of our questions before they were asked and resembled a Western version of Charlie Chan. He seemed very pleased that his shapely daughters suddenly found heroic suitors at a time when heroic suitors were really needed. The sex and gore shown was not too explicit and were both kept very suitable for all audiences unlike some in this genre.

This movie is good for laughs and is a notch above the standard B horror flicks of the era. Unfortunately, the video quality is poor and the audio is worse. I have been told that the DVD version has the same quality issues leading me to believe that it was copied from the same faded master that the video obviously was. This is a real drawback and I hope some re-mastered versions are produced in the future as this movie is in its own way worthwhile entertainment on several levels and for a variety of audiences.

"One minute there was just a fog, the next it got thick and hard..." 2005-06-29
I've read a number of comments on here for The Slime People (1963), specifically in relation to the dialog track being missing from the Rhino DVD release...I can understand the frustration in not getting what one pays for, but those who did receive versions without this element might consider themselves lucky, as I watched the movie last night, and the dialog didn't help the film any...the film was directed by Robert Hutton who, incidentally, also stars...I can't help wonder if he got the directing gig and then cast himself in the lead role afterwards. If I come off as sounding biased against Mr. Hutton it's only because this is the 2nd feature I've seen this week starring this individual, the other being the tepid sci-fi feature They Came From Beyond Space (1967), and after that, I wasn't too keen on spending more time with him anytime soon...also appearing with Hutton is Robert Burton (I Was a Teenage Frankenstein), Susan Hart (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini), who, by the way, was married to James H. Nicholson, co-founder of AIP (American International Pictures), William Boyce, Judee Morton (The Explosive Generation), and Les Tremayne (The War of the Worlds, The Monolith Monsters, The Angry Red Planet).

The film starts with a strange creature, armed with a spear, rising from the sewer (actually it uses one of those underground elevators to rise to street level, but whatever). Soon afterwards a man is found dead on the beach due to severe case of lead poisoning (he had a spear protruding from his back), which leads into the opening credits, followed by scenes involving a small aircraft, piloted by television personality Tom Gregory (Hutton), struggling through some inclement weather. He manages to land the plane, but discovers the airport is deserted, that is until a station wagon arrives containing Professor Galbraith (Burton) and his two daughters Lisa (Hart), and Bonnie (Morton)...where the hell did they come from(turns out they were away in the mountains while nearly everyone else evacuated)? Anyway, they relate a fantastic story to Tom about scaly, slime covered, prehistoric, man-like creatures taking over L.A. by using a fog machine to encase the city in an impenetrable dome made of hardened slime (turns out the monsters were disturbed by our deep drilling and underground nuclear testing, and have now decided to take over the surface world)...to which Tom thinks they're a bunch of real jokers but learns otherwise after viewing some news footage back at the television station where he works. This is also where they hook up with Calvin `Cal' Johnson, a marine (okay, since when is `The Ducktail' an approved hairstyle for the marines?) who got separated from his unit and sought refuge at the station. The group formulates a plan (well, the professor does, and the rest go along with him) to break through the wall by trying all kinds of different chemicals...after this some stuff happens (most of it pretty boring), the group ends up in a butcher shop (hey, turkey legs are 35 cents a pound), some more stuff happens, Bonnie gets kidnapped, blah, blah, blah...oh yeah, there's a whole lot of fog which tends to obfuscate matters, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing...

I said this for the film They Came From Beyond Space and I'm saying it again for this one, Robert Hutton just doesn't seem like leading man material to me...in supporting roles he'd be fine, but I have yet to see him carry an entire film. Actually, he seems to be more of the villain type as he has sinister features (like that pencil line mustache)...but compared to the others in this film, Hutton comes off like a master thespian. I don't want to pick on William Boyce too much as this was his first (and only) role, but he was truly terrible and his character came off as an idiot (so do the rest, but his doubly so due to his own incompetence)...watch for the scene in which he, during a moment of frustration, smacks his fist in his hand ala Burt Ward (as the Robin character) in the mid 1960's Batman television show. The women acted pretty in pretty much standard fashion for a film like this, often screaming in phony terror, getting all overly dramatic, and, in general, presenting themselves as liabilities. The only halfway interesting character is that played by Les Tremayne (he played a kooky writer the group picks up about mid picture), but he's written as such an antagonizing jerk you just know he's not going to make it until the end. Of course, no one is aided by the terrible script and directionally challenged and tedious plot, perfectly illustrated in the method used to fill the audience in on a good number of the details by making us watch the characters watch newsreel footage, much of which talked about battles between the army and hordes of slime men, but never actually showed any fighting. Especially sickening is the love angles that develop between Professor Galbraith's daughters and the two men, who are about as charming as dead wood. For a film that's only about an hour and fifteen minutes long, it sure knew how to drag things out...the monsters (by the way, three creatures, which is the most seen on the screen at anyone time, hardly makes an invasion) looked pretty decent, but were hardly slimy, as indicated by the title. While they looked reasonably decent, they did move around like guys in elaborate rubber suits unsure of their footing (slow and awkward), were hardly menacing, and made really funny noises akin to someone unclogging a drain...gurgle gurgle...blort...gurgle...at least the filmmakers didn't shy away from showing them as they're the first thing we see as the story opens. And one more thing with regards to the group retreating to the butcher store...I was half hoping they'd take up arms (cleavers, boning knifes, etc.) and fight the creatures, but no such luck...

The picture one this Rhino DVD release looks pretty good, but does show some signs of wear. The audio is a different story...some have commented on here that the dialog track is missing from their DVD...I had no such problem with mine, as the audio came through pretty well until about halfway through as some audio fuzz made the dialog difficult to hear. This cleared up, but then came back again near the end. There are no special features on this DVD, but there are chapter stops, for what its worth.

Cookieman108

By the way, the tagline for this film 'Up from the bowels of the earth come...' is partially appropriate...this film came from the bowels of something...

One of my top ten movies 2004-11-18
This was a good movie. Most of these reviews say that its so bad its good. That by definition is a good movie. The problem is that a lot of these people either don't remember the late 50's and early 60's or they have forgot the times. I was a young kid when this came out. The first time I saw one of the slime people come out of the sewer I was pretty nervous. The hero is heroic, the girls are pretty (for their time), the professor was a genius about everything and the marine was what people saw a marine as in those days. Special effects are hoaky by todays standards. Of course there isn't a thousand people getting killed every five minutes either.Since it first came out on beta I bought a copy. I have had a copy ever since. I just ordered the DVD. I hope the sound works. If it doesn't I'll buy a new tape and convert it. This is a must have movie.