The Giant Gila Monster starts with young lovers Pat Wheeler (Grady Vaughn) & Liz Humphries (Yolanda Salas) making out in a car when a giant gila lizard attacks sending their car rolling down a hill, then the giant gila lizard moves in for the kill... The next morning Pats Dad (Bob Thompson) has a few words with Sheriff Jeff (Fred Graham) & basically tells him his job & to search for his missing son. Sheriff Jeff heads straight for Pats friend & local mechanic Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan) who is one real damn fine human being, I mean this guy is the absolute cream of American youth. He a caring, hard working, banjo playing stand up pillar of the community who even works all the hours god sends to support his Mum (Gay McLendon), sister Missy (Janice Stone) & girlfriend Lisa (Lisa Simone) after his Dad died, oh & he respects authority too & helps out the local Sheriff whenever he can. Anyway as they investigate Pat & Liz's disappearance they discover various car wrecks & when Chase's boss Mr. Compton (Cecil Hunt) becomes the latest victim of the giant gila lizard Sheriff Jeff & Chase think these incidents may be connected, things become even more bizarre when a local drunk named Harris (Shug Fisher) claims to have seen a giant lizard...
Directed by Ray Kellogg this giant 50's monster film really isn't anything to get excited about, Kellogg & the production company also made the much more entertaining The Killer Shrews (1959) at the same time & intended them both to go out on a double bill together. The script by Jay Simms stretches the thin premise out to an excruciating 74 minutes which is about 73 minutes too long. The Giant Gila Monster is painfully slow & very dull, I wouldn't have thought any film featuring a giant lizard would be but it most definitely is. We occasionally get the odd shot of a real normal gila lizard lazily walking through a model landscape which fails to generate any sort of menace or tension, between these almost random scenes there are plenty of good wholesome American teens doing their thing like dancing horribly to 50's music &, I have to mention it, a terrifying moment when Chase takes his banjo out & starts to play a tune & sing a song to his little sister who appears to lap it up as we get lots of loving reaction shots from everyone, urgh. The Sheriff is a bit of an idiot as well, he just walks around a bit & looks concerned without actually doing anything meaningful. The explanation given for this giant gila lizard lacks any imagination & is given a whole one conversation at the end. This film is a mess, poorly paced, annoying character's, boring situations & a complete lack of anything interesting or entertaining going on plus there are various scenes of people openly drink driving like it's a normal everyday thing which doesn't do it any favours. With a supposed budget of about $138,000 technically The Giant Gila Monster isn't too bad, the black and white cinematography is acceptable although the version I saw was extremely dark to the point I could barely see what was happening during the night scenes, I'm not sure if this is a fault with the film itself or just my version although my instincts say the former. The special effects consist entirely of a real gila lizard walking over a model landscape, derailing a toy train & not much else. The gila lizard is never in any shot with a person & I am amazed that this massive lizard can seemingly just sneak up on people without them noticing. The acting is flat & not very impressive. The Giant Gila Monster is a dull film, nothing happens for long stretches, the character's are highly annoying & the gila lizard itself is barely used. There is one funny scene which stops The Giant Gila Monster from being a complete disaster, during a barn dance at the end the gila lizard starts to break the wall down & enter to which Chase calmly says 'don't panic', as if anyone would panic because a huge monster is about to eat them. Maybe The Giant Gila Monster will appeal to 50's monster film fans but for everyone else don't bother with this one as there are much better monster films out there & I just can't see many modern audiences getting anything out of this.
Directed by Ray Kellogg this giant 50's monster film really isn't anything to get excited about, Kellogg & the production company also made the much more entertaining The Killer Shrews (1959) at the same time & intended them both to go out on a double bill together. The script by Jay Simms stretches the thin premise out to an excruciating 74 minutes which is about 73 minutes too long. The Giant Gila Monster is painfully slow & very dull, I wouldn't have thought any film featuring a giant lizard would be but it most definitely is. We occasionally get the odd shot of a real normal gila lizard lazily walking through a model landscape which fails to generate any sort of menace or tension, between these almost random scenes there are plenty of good wholesome American teens doing their thing like dancing horribly to 50's music &, I have to mention it, a terrifying moment when Chase takes his banjo out & starts to play a tune & sing a song to his little sister who appears to lap it up as we get lots of loving reaction shots from everyone, urgh. The Sheriff is a bit of an idiot as well, he just walks around a bit & looks concerned without actually doing anything meaningful. The explanation given for this giant gila lizard lacks any imagination & is given a whole one conversation at the end. This film is a mess, poorly paced, annoying character's, boring situations & a complete lack of anything interesting or entertaining going on plus there are various scenes of people openly drink driving like it's a normal everyday thing which doesn't do it any favours. With a supposed budget of about $138,000 technically The Giant Gila Monster isn't too bad, the black and white cinematography is acceptable although the version I saw was extremely dark to the point I could barely see what was happening during the night scenes, I'm not sure if this is a fault with the film itself or just my version although my instincts say the former. The special effects consist entirely of a real gila lizard walking over a model landscape, derailing a toy train & not much else. The gila lizard is never in any shot with a person & I am amazed that this massive lizard can seemingly just sneak up on people without them noticing. The acting is flat & not very impressive. The Giant Gila Monster is a dull film, nothing happens for long stretches, the character's are highly annoying & the gila lizard itself is barely used. There is one funny scene which stops The Giant Gila Monster from being a complete disaster, during a barn dance at the end the gila lizard starts to break the wall down & enter to which Chase calmly says 'don't panic', as if anyone would panic because a huge monster is about to eat them. Maybe The Giant Gila Monster will appeal to 50's monster film fans but for everyone else don't bother with this one as there are much better monster films out there & I just can't see many modern audiences getting anything out of this.