War of the Colossal Beast

The sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man continues with the further adventures of the unfortunate Colonel Glen Manning now having lost an eye and most of the flesh around the right side of his jaw. He finds his way to Mexico after obviously surviving his plunge off Hoover Dam and raids trucks for food. It's along the same level as the original and even though it's cheesy it's still fun to watch.

War of the Colossal Beast is a sequel to Gordon's earlier The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and it picks up where that one left off. However, the film features a different cast. It was distributed theatrically by American International Pictures as the top half of a double feature with Attack of the Puppet People.

This sequel has competent acting performances, fair direction and ordinary special effects. It is also an obvious attempt at milking dry an already successful formula.

Unlike the first film, the character of Manning virtually has no dialogue which makes it far more difficult to feel empathy for the character.

The special effects are pretty ordinary by any standards with great reliance made on double exposure shots. However, quite a good job was made with Manning's facial make-up and the audio of his character's grunts and groans which effectively contribute to the "horror" aspect of the film.

The film is short enough as it is but unfortunately much of it consists of flashback footage from the first film which merely serves to pad the movie.

Despite the film's title, the Colossal Beast does not really engage in much of a "war" with anyone. For much of the time we see Manning being captured, him lying on his back and some military vehicles being maneuvered into position.

The War of the Colossal Beast does serve to highlight one theme that threads itself through many aspects of life in any era. Namely, how we choose to deal with big and seemingly intractable problems which are often of our own making.

This is the sad case of the Colossal man, Glen Manning, who through no fault of his own was doomed to suffer a horrible fate. In the first movie, he appeared to die as he fell off Hoover Dam. Now, he has resurfaced, with huge facial deformities and damage to his brain. The problem this time is that he doesn't seem to have the ability to communicate with others. His sister goes to bat for him when the military wants nothing more that to destroy him. It's interesting where he fits on the definition of humanness. That's why the sister is working so hard to get him some help, but he doesn't seem to be able to interpret his world. He does show his compassion one more time at the close of this film. The big guy never had a chance.

War of the Colossal Beast (1958)

** (out of 4)

AIP waiting no time in getting this sequel to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN off the ground and into drive-ins. Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser) believes that her brother didn't die at the end of the previous film and after hearing a strange news story from Mexico she heads down there. Sure enough the giant Glenn Manning (Duncan 'Dean' Parkin) is living in the desert and soon the military tries to capture him to see if they can help.

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST is slightly better than the original, although it shares most of the same weaknesses as that film. The biggest problem is that there are way too many scenes that just get dragged out with boring dialogue and this is especially true with the various scenes where we hear the doctors talk about what they can or can't do with the giant. I'd say the film would have been much better off with less talk and more action and especially since the action itself is pretty good.

The highlight is without question the monster. This time out they've given him a mutated face, which looks terrific and especially the lack of an eye and the way part of his teeth are showing. The look of the giant is quite effective and it makes you forget that some of the "giant" special effects aren't all that believable. Another thing this sequel has going for it is the fact that the action scenes are quite good. The stuff early on with the giant living in the desert was quite good and there's no question that the finale is full of excitement and especially a twist that happens at the very end.

The performances really aren't anything to write home about but director Bert I. Gordon at least manages to make the film run a lot more smoothly and I'd argue that it has a very pace and feel to it. Still, there's no question that it's the look of the monster that makes WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST so much fun and slightly better than the original.

This is the story of how "War of the Colossal Beast" made an imprint on my life. I saw it when I was almost 2. I remember my parents lying in bed, dead asleep to the world and their bedroom tv was on. I remember being in my crib (I remember the bars!) and being thirsty so I picked up my bottle but there wasn't any water in it. I remember looking at their tv and I remember seeing this giant with one eyeball and big teeth... growling!!! It had my attention. After that, the Star Spangled Banner played and the tv went to the snowy picture. My parents, by the way, never budged. To be honest, my mom was snoring. I was scared out of my skin. I cried and threw my bottle at their bed. I think I hit my dad because my dad stirred, sleepily leaned over and turned the tv off. I sat in the dark! I was afraid that the giant with the one eyeball and big teeth that was growling was going to come through the window and get me and my parents didn't care because they stayed asleep!!! As I grew older, I could not be in the room alone if the Star Spangled Banner on tv played and the station was signing off. I used to scream like crazy. The older I got though, I controlled the screaming but I grew anxious, broke out in a cold sweat and demanded to change channels. Now that digital and satellite cable has arrived, I can look at the Amazing Colossal Beast and laugh at the cheap special effects because I know the tv wont play the Star Spangles Banner and trun to snow. The moral of the story is: no matter how cheesy and bad you think a sci-fi movie from the 50's is, don't leave your infants or toddlers in front of them. Lord knows what they will remember and Lord knows how it will effect their psyche!!!