Monster a Go-Go (1965) User Reviews

A multi-layered, compelling sci fi horror masterpiece

[straker-1 · 1/10 · 9 October 2005]

OK, I lied to get your attention. This is the worst film ever made.

Now, I loved Manos: The Hands Of Fate, and I love Monster A Go-Go just as much. I really do. Why? Because films that are this bad, this...this STAGGERINGLY AWFUL...have a kind of transcendent Zen brilliance to them that I cannot put into words. I find myself wondering just what deep message the director was trying to express with movies this inept....something this strange HAS to have a meaning, I think to myself. No-one sets out to make a film this bad on purpose, do they?! In many ways, Z-graders are an insight into the drives and obsessions of their creators more than anything else.

I would rather watch this movie and Manos, and Red Zone Cuba 40 times than see True Lies twice - for the reason that there is nothing funny about a talented guy making a lousy picture, but there is something endlessly amusing and compelling about a determined bargain basement incompetent cranking out a 70-minute nightmare believing it to be a work of genius. And M.A.G-G is the king of those bombs.

So, why does Monster A Go-Go even exist? Well, it almost didn't. Bill Rebane, who would go on to pit Steve Brodie and Alan Hale Jr against a killer Muppet in The Giant Spider Invasion, started a sci fi horror flick called Terror At Halfday in the early 60s. The money ran out, and Rebane shelved the project. Then along came schlock legend Herschell Lewis, in need of a cheap B-picture to fill out the bottom half of a double bill deal. He snapped up Rebane's footage, shot some of his own, added a voice-over, changed the title, and BINGO thus was Monster A Go-Go unleashed on the filmgoing world in the space year 1965.

Just how much extra material Lewis filmed to 'complete' this cinematic train-wreck is open to dispute, though the addition of the almost totally pointless 'go-go dancing sequence' about halfway in (some groovy guys and gals lamely doing the Twist) and the irritatingly strident voice-over narration are dead certs. What is for certain here, though, is the released picture is about as incoherent and illogical as any film could ever be and still be called anything but 'rough cuts stuck together with sellotape'.

The plot? Oh Lordy, the plot. OK (deep breath) Astronaut Frank Douglas, who was apparently sent into space to investigate mysterious satellites, crash-lands in some woods and promptly goes on a homicidal rampage. Investigators from NASA or the Air Force or the Lions Club, I dunno, look into the mystery; and, as the movie progresses and the body count mounts we discover not just one but TWO conspiracies at work here! It is revealed that Frank has been mutated, increased to ten feet in height *and* sent into a murderous rage by an experimental radiation repellent given to him before the launch. Just as we are recovering from this JFK-like cover-up of the truth, the plot moves forward eight weeks - the murders have stopped. But where is Douglas? It turns out that the inventor of the mutagenic rad-repellent captured him and has been keeping him bundled up in his lab, feeding him over those weeks an antidote to the repellent to keep him docile. Then....boom, more plot twist action: the antidote wears off faster and faster every time it is applied, and each successive relapse into the killer rage is worse! Douglas finally murders his way to freedom, and heads for the big city to go hide in a disused sewer tunnel. The army and Civil Defence move in to tackle the shuffling radioactive lumpy-faced (and very tall) space-crazed giant, only to discover the film's third and final twist....

To list Monster A Go-Go's flaws would be to detail every second of the flick, so we'll go into specifics. My favourites are: the way half the cast vanish at the midpoint, only to be replaced by characters that are virtually identical. The incredibly muffled soundtrack. The bit where Dr Logan's glasses teleport onto his face in-between shots. The insanity of said Dr Logan's hiding of the Douglas monster, after it had killed at least six people, only to make it worse with an antidote that Logan already knew was harmful. The bafflingly surreal 'car breakdown/sweaty rude trucker kiss-seduction' sequence. The Fisher-Price Gemini space capsule Douglas came down in, which is about four feet high. The army goons who open fire at Douglas after the narration tells us the army has orders not to harm him. The absent music track when a character asks if his dining companion remembers 'that song'. The equally non-extant phone ring cue which is represented by someone going 'brrrr' off-screen. The house that has a front doorway but no door to go in it. The lack of any relevance to the 'Go-Go' part of the title. The thrilling monster attack on Logan's lab that we are...told about in narration. The way USAF colonels travel round in unmarked Buicks that go at 60 mph in reverse. The way the same black Plymouth shows up driven by four or five different characters. The opening line of the aforementioned narration that says that the events about to seen in the movie 'may not even be possible!'. The way the plot makes absolutely no sense at all. The almost total absence of the title's monster. And, of course...the ENDING. Or rather, the STOP. I cannot spoil this for you, folks, you have to experience the STOP yourself.

See this movie. You must, you must. If only to understand what Messrs Rebane and Lewis were trying to say...for my money, what they were trying to say was 'We have no idea what we're doing'. Gloriously, mind shatteringly awful. Absolute Z-grade gold. Worst movie of all time. Makes The Creeping Terror look...well, not as bad.

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!

[Van_Hagar_3000 · 1/10 · 31 January 2004]

Okay here is the scoop. This was an unfinished movie that a few added scenes and was edited together almost at random, so it could be used as part of a double feature. That is why everything is all screwed up, that and the initial inept directing, crappy acting and other such.

Monster A Go Go, it sound like the name of a bad camp movie, but it's really the name of a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad horror movie. It is the worst movie ever made. The reason most MSTies say Manos is worst is because it's a more popular episode because Joel & the bots could make fun of it more. This however was too hard to make fun of. In the MST3K book (Amazing Colossal Episode Guide) they note this was the first time in a while that they didn't do any host segments related to the movie, because NOTHING happens. Manos, had intriguing characters like Torgo, The Master, and hell even Debbie. This has Henry Hite with some mud on his face for two shots.

Only see this movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Even then it isn't that good as they don't really have anything to work with.

My head hurts

[Progbear-4 · 1/10 · 18 April 2000]

I'd be hard-pressed to find a more painful film. Nausea-inducing camera twists, seemingly random editing (try and find a scene that has anything to do with the one that preceded it), bad lighting, bad acting, nonexistent writing and a lack of *anything* that makes a good, or coherent film. Add to all that one of the lamest twist endings in cinema history, with out any sort of plot to justify it, and you have one infuriating film. It was so difficult to sit through, I was almost in tears by the end. One of those films you can't enjoy on any level, even as camp.

My vote for THE WORST FILM EVER MADE.

[reverendentity · 21 August 2004]

Ask many people what the worst film ever made is, and they will probably respond with either "Ishtar" or "Manos, The Hands of Fate". I, on the other hand, have seen those two and this one, and I have to tell you, this is the low point in my book. Several key points using "Manos" for comparison:

--Manos was in color. --Manos has better costumes. --Manos is at least unintentionally funny. --Manos has more of a surreal approach.

MONSTER, on the other hand, is a black and white sleeper of a film (and I mean sleeper in the sense that you will probably fall asleep waiting for something to happen). The badly paced dialogue cuts present in "Manos" are here, but sadly, they aren't interspersed with freaky costumes (not counting the odd go-go outfit) or for that matter, memorable dialogue. As an example of exactly how dull this film is, I showed it (admittedly, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version) to some MST3K friends of mine who are avid collectors of bad/tacky cinema. OK, they had been drinking...a little. But regardless, they were both out in the first 20 minutes and did not wake up at all for the rest of the film. I don't think _I_ have ever sat through a viewing and remained awake.

Therefore, I would like to recommend this film as a fine sleep aid to anyone suffering from recurring insomnia. If you do decide to watch the film, and manage to remain awake to the conclusion, please refrain from damaging your video equipment if you find the ending...perplexing.

I understand the go-go part...

[KubrickCRM114 · 1/10 · 29 March 2003]

...but not much else goes together in this film. Very bad acting, you can often catch actors reading from cue cards. It's not really even directed, like the camera was just set up where it would fit, the actors would read their lines, "Cut and print." The story is an amazingly bad Twilight Zone episode dragged on to unbearable lengths, and the surprise ending is by far one of the worst plot-twists ever. The monster itself is a tall guy with bad acne, who just sort of meanders around throughout the duration of the movie. All in all, very hard to watch, even with Joel & the 'bots. Watch for the man doing his own sound effects! "Brrrrrrr!"

This Movie Gave Me the Wim-Wams!

[timothydean74 · 1/10 · 16 March 2009]

Monster A Go-Go is truly a black hole of a movie, sucking all life into it's nihilistic void. It appears to be (even if it's an attempt to question all appearance) a desperate attempt at making a movie in which nothing happens. And perhaps it succeeds. This alone makes it fascinating, even if it's boring to the point of wondering if you and the movie actually exist.

But worst movie of all time? I say no, and here's why: there is nothing in this movie that offends the senses, mainly because there is nothing in this movie. It's like hating a brick wall, or a black hole, or the number zero. Troll 2, on the other hand, is infinitely offensive--to the eyes, ears, to the mind and to the soul. It is also emotionally devastating. It's a nightmare that actually deletes a part of your inner being. There are no characters in Monster A Go-Go, and, hence, no one to hate. But there is not one single character in all of Troll 2 that you do not want to murder, so foul and revolting are these disgusting, annoying, shrill, anti-characters. The acting in Monster is dull and robotic; the acting in Troll 2 is infuriating. And at least Monster A Go-Go has a monster in it. Troll 2 has no trolls.

I will say that I'd rather watch Monos: The Hands of Fate than Monster A Go-Go because Manos is at least awesomely bad in almost heroic ways.

A Very Weird, Bill Rebane Mess

[gavin6942 · 2/10 · 9 November 2014]

A space capsule crash-lands, and the astronaut aboard disappears. Is there a connection between the missing man and the monster roaming the area?

No bones about it, this is a terrible movie. Were it to be remade (heaven forbid) this might actually be alright, because the plot is not awful for a monster movie. But the execution! Oh, man! Poor editing, awful sound (many times conversations are hardly audible or are reverberating), nasty lighting that washes everything out (which is made worse by poor prints, no doubt). Widely considered one of the worst films ever made, it has earned that honor.

What makes it interesting, though, is that despite being a piece of garbage, it was actually made by two great independent filmmakers -- H. G. Lewis and Bill Rebane, the godfather of the Wisconsin film industry. Perhaps even more interesting is a man named Rick Paul who acts in a small role. After this, he apparently stayed out of movies for twenty years before resurfacing in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" as a victim and the film's art director. Odd! (Though not that odd given the Chicago connection.)

None of this makes up for it being a terrible movie, though. Watch it at your own risk.

The worst movie ever made

[LutherBl · 1/10 · 29 January 1999]

Forget "Plan 9"... This is the real thing. At least Ed Wood knew something about using stock footage. Bill Rebane's spliced together footage, which he bought from a bankrupt film project, has less continuity than home movies after the kids learn to use the splicer. Typical goofs include finding out that the monster was captured & held at the lab by finding out that he has escaped & a scene in which a trucker helps a woman with car trouble followed by a scene which mentions a trucker being found horribly murdered.

The most hilarious gaffe is the scene which begins with a close-up of a telephone in the scientist's planning room, which looks inexplicably like a laundromat. Offscreen, someone says, "Brrrrrrp." A hand then reaches onscreen & picks up the receiver. The ending provides the final punch below the belt, as as the narrator sweeps aside the entire premise of the film with yet more tortured, pompous verbiage--proving that we have absolutely wasted 70 minutes.

A Woefully Misbegotten, Muddled Monstrosity of a Movie

[williampsamuel · 1/10 · 7 January 2015]

Never have I seen a movie with less respect for logic, or its audience, than Monster A Go-Go. This is below the level of a first grader. This movie does not have continuity problems, it is one. The ending is one that no viewer would guess, because no sane person would use it.

The plot, such as it is, involves an astronaut who went up to space and came back as a hideous ten foot tall monster. Pretty standard stuff. Several other low-budget quickies were made on basically the same premise. What sets this apart is the sheer confusion and disregard for any sense of continuity that the already thin material is handled with. People do things that no rational person would ever do. Revelations are made that… But let me back up a moment. Before I go on about all the things wrong with this movie (which is everything) allow me to explain the tortured route Monster A Go-Go took to reach theaters. In 1961, Bill Rebane started this film, hoping to make a quick buck in the drive-in circuit. But halfway through filming it, he ran out of money, and the project was canceled.

Four years later a young director named Hershel Gordon Lewis (who would later produce tasteless splatter-fests such as Two Thousand Maniacs and The Gore-Gore Girls) needed something to show on a double bill with his own film, Moonshine Mountain. Most Z-grade filmmakers would simply buy the rights to a preexisting movie and show it under a new title. But that would have been too easy for Lewis. Instead, he chose to finish what Rebane had started.

Of course having a four year gap in the production schedule creates all kinds of problems. Many of the original actors were unavailable, and one actor looked so different after an accident that he now played the brother of the character he played before. Also, Lewis had even less money than the previous filmmaker, so he was reduced to shortcuts such as having the scientists talk about important plot points rather than showing them on screen.

Now that you know what went into making this turkey, you probably have pretty low expectations. Prepare to set them much, much lower as I explain some of the plot points. First off, what turned our brave astronaut into a not-very-scary monster? The flight doctor switched him to a new, untested form of 'radiation repellent'- and doubled the dosage- just before liftoff, despite disastrous results in animal testing. Why? Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. This explanation comes up a lot.

For instance, at one point it is revealed that one of the scientists captured the monster, locked him in a closet, and began giving him doses of antidote over several weeks- without telling anyone! And the only reason he tells anyone now is that the monster escaped and trashed their labs. So while they've been searching frantically for the monster, it's been in their building- but now it's out wreaking havoc again.

The production values also match the budget. The special effects are non-existent. Many of the props look like something a third-grade art class would make, while others are clearly everyday object gimmicked up to look like scientific instruments. All shooting was apparently done in Podunk Iowa, judging by the number of empty fields and overgrown thickets. I have not named any of the actors, both as a courtesy to them, and because they're no one you would have heard of anyway.

But nothing can compare to the sheer idiocy of the ending. Read no further if you still want it to be a surprise. Hershel Gordon Lewis must have been at a complete loss for how to end this- or loaded out of his mind- because after the scientists and the army corner the monster in a storm drain, they receive a letter stating that the astronaut landed safely hundreds of miles away, and is on his way home. The narrator goes on to tell us that there was no monster. To quote directly from the film's closing narration; "There was no giant, no monster, no thing called "Douglas" to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage, who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness! With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away in a lifeboat, with no memory of where he has been, or how he was separated from his capsule! Then who, or what, has landed here? Is it here yet? Or has the cosmic switch been pulled? Case in point: The line between science fiction and science fact is microscopically thin! You have witnessed the line being shaved even thinner! But is the menace with us? Or is the monster gone?" What the Hell?! We've seen the monster. He's killed three people! And now they're telling us he was just a figment of our imagination! How on earth could Lewis think that anyone would believe this for even a moment? A glue sniffing kindergarten dropout could see through this! In my mind's eye I can almost see the audience going into a stunned silence, then breaking out into a chorus of boos and throwing their popcorn and drink containers at the screen. I would be afraid to show Monster A Go-Go in my theater for fear that young moviegoers would forcibly recover their dimes and quarters from the cash register.

So under no circumstances should you watch the original version of this movie. The Mystery Science Theatre 3000 cut is watchable, but even Joel and the 'bots were hard pressed to do much with this material, even breaking down crying at the end because it was so bad. Come to think of it, maybe the CIA should screen this one down at Guantanamo. That would get the terrorists talking.

Alas, poor Rebane...his career went a Go-Go

[InzyWimzy · 2/10 · 10 September 2003]

ooh...ow, stingy!! that's pretty much sums up the viewing of this Rebane crapsterpiece.

The first time I saw this, I was stunned. Kind of like when you take a test in school and you have no idea how to read Sumerian. The grainy black and white does not make it noir or surreal; it just looks crappy in addition to not being in color. Can you remember one person's name in this film? The only one I can remember is Frank Douglas after the shocking (not in a good way) climax to the movie and that you the viewer were not 800 miles away from this toxic mess. Bad editing, no continuity, nameless faces, great sound EFX (Lucasfilm can't even come close to the phone ring in this one), and illogical events will leave you baffled and bewildered. C'mon! That was the actual space capsule that crash landed? I've seen shop projects that looked more realistic. SHEESH! Also, having events (which you don't actually see) being described by a narrator shows that Rebane has collaborated with Coleman Francis in the past.

Actually, seeing this first on MST made this a lot less painful. Watch it again and you just crack up over how third rate this one is. If only Joel and the bots won the Johnny LongTorso contest cause you can really feel how painful this one was for them!

The very definition of BORING

[Teach-7 · 1/10 · 16 May 2003]

You haven't experienced cinematic boredom until you watch this incoherent mess. You know you're in trouble early on when the voice-over (usually the saving grace of hopeless movie-directors) singularly fail to explain what is going on. You, the viewer, is on your own here, completely deserted by Monster a go go.

The actors sit around a lot, talk a lot, whatever. The monster doesn't really relate to anything else happening here, but he does look frighteningly emaciated and wasted (and very tall). Trouble is, he doesn't get much screen time. When the ending finally arrives a celebration is in order. Admire yourself enormously for sitting through this. It's an achievement, believe me. The second worst movie ever. Manos-hands of fate is even worse, but not by much.

I love bad movies

[headbone · 10/10 · 14 November 2001]

Ahhh, Bill Rebane, You've done it again! Funny thing, this movie is one of the whitest I've ever seen, but one thing I remembered most from seeing one of Rebane's later works, "The Giant Spider Invasion", was that it was too dark, having had very poor lighting.

This is another one of those movies that is so bad its hilarious. If you enjoy laughing at the incompetence of film makers, like I do, then you will love this one. It seems as though the audio must have been lost in some places, as much of it is narrated by a voice-over. This is probably a good thing because most the audio that is still there is practically unintelligible. At times it sounds as though people are talking through a kazoo.

The title makes no sense either. It has nothing to do with the movie. I'm sure other reviewers have gone into what the movie is about, so I'll leave that to them. I am merely pointing out its characteristics. In short, Its a bad, bad, bad movie. Just the kind I love to laugh at.

Incredibly inept

[rosscinema · 6/10 · 20 August 2002]

I've seen this road kill of a movie a bunch of times and while I admit its easily one of the worst movies ever made, I think every film buff should have to see this! The story, editing, cinematography and clumsy direction make this fascinating to watch. Just like "Plan 9 from Outer Space". I have to admit I own a copy on video!

Current worst movie I've ever seen

[world_of_cassia · 1/10 · 23 March 2016]

Good. Gravy. Some of the notoriously bad movies I leave feeling almost robbed, since I find at least one worthwhile thing. Manos was inept on every level, but the story was at least an idea (note that I didn't say a good one). Zombie Nightmare at least had Adam West and Tia Carrere in it. Reefer Madness and Batman & Robin I find too silly to get really angry about. Monster a-Go Go... I've got nothing.

This is first time I've gotten headaches and nausea from the cinematography alone. Not anything displayed on screen, the camera- work by itself was enough to make me sick. As if that weren't enough, every frame looks like the negative was photocopied 17 times and spliced together, the sound and dialogue made me think my ear buds had gone dead, and the concept itself makes no sense. Given that the project had been abandoned in 1961, then picked up, finished, and put out in 1965, it should come as a surprise to no one that the story is borderline incomprehensible - I'm talking trying to divide by zero while drunkenly stumbling through a hedge maze levels of confounded here. Of course, that's not even close to the biggest problem with the movie: the ending. Not since Robot Monster have I seen such a cop- out conclusion for a movie so mind- bogglingly lazy, out-of-place, nonsensical, and insulting to the audience.

This thing is the current title holder for the worst movie ever made, in my own opinion. If there comes a film to dethrone it, I will retract this statement accordingly. However, I am convinced that it would have to consist of two hours of TV static with a cat hacking up in the background while a monkey takes a tire iron to my skull for me to even slightly consider it for my bottom spot, and even then it likely still wouldn't be as bad as Monster a-Go Go.

The 2nd Worst Movie Ever.

[dootuss · 16 November 2002]

I saw this one on MST3K years ago, and I can still remember how bad it was. This movie has to be the 2nd worst movie of all time (trailing "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" for that title), and there's a great reason for that...

First off, the plot. It's atrocious. There isn't REMOTELY a monster whatsoever in this film. The acting, like other bad movies is also bad as well. This movie overall was bad, so bad that it should've been destroyed after it was done. Overall, a extremely, awful, botched waste of film, and precious time...

Only watch this on MST3K. They bashed it good on that show.

The ultimate low point for H.G. Lewis

[Sandcooler · 1/10 · 31 March 2017]

"Monster A Go-Go" was supposed to be the first feature film for Bill Rebane, who started filming this thing in 1961. His monster flick, originally called "Terror At Halfday", had a budget of 80.000 dollars, which was pretty much gone after a couple of days of filming. After he ran out of funding the film lay on the shelf for about four years, unfinished and with no hope (or desire) of actually being released.

Cue Herschell Gordon Lewis (of "Blood Feast" fame), always on the look-out for the cheapest way he could get a film released. So he bought the abandoned footage from "Terror At Halfday" and 'finished' the movie. To cut costs, he decided to only ask a couple of performers back, which did not include Henry Hite. I should point out Henry Hite played the monster. He finished this monster flick ... without the monster. That's one of the main reasons why this movie feels like such a blatantly cynical cash grab.

So Lewis only had a tiny little bit of footage shot with Henry Hite, and none of that footage could be edited to look like an actual ending. Lewis 'solved' that problem by creating one of the saddest anti-climaxes in the history of filmmaking. I honestly can't imagine how the people that paid to see this left the theatre after this screening. To quote Rich Hall: "It was so bad I wanted everyone's money back!". That was about a Bob Dylan concert, but it works equally well for this movie.

For what it's worth: Rebane actually did try to shoot a big climax for this, that's actually the main reason the budget ran out so quickly. Some of the ending scenes feature dozens of extras, so that's clearly Rebane's footage. Lewis really wouldn't bother to do any of that. In later interviews Rebane has stated he hates this movie even more than the audience does, and I can't blame him. Lewis didn't even put his name on it, Rebane is the only credited director. Did I mention he only sold his "Terror At Halfday" footage for 8.000 dollars, while it cost ten times as much to film? I guess he got a really quick course on how film business worked.

Boring and bad--a lethal combination

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 28 November 2008]

Some bad films are enjoyable to watch for their camp value and one of the finest pleasures in life is watching and laughing at such silly films as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. However, there's another group of films that MONSTER A GO-GO falls into--bad films that are just plain bad--so bad that making fun of them isn't worth the trouble--you just want them to end.

Despite the title and some "groovy" rock-n-roll music at the beginning and end, there is nothing in this movie that would merit the "A GO-GO" appellation. It's NOT a teen rock horror film--just a very, very dull horror film with practically no chills. The only danger you'll have with this one is falling asleep.

The film's plot, not that anyone cares, is about a spaceship that returns to Earth and the astronaut inside has been transformed into a 10 foot tall radioactive menace. Of course, how a 10 foot high man was able to fit into the tiny space capsule is a mystery, but honestly this isn't important. In fact, due to horrible acting, bad writing, a disjoint narrative and not even one single interesting moment, I won't even bother to continue. It's that bad.

There may be a worse movie out there, but I haven't seen it yet, and I've seen a lot of movies.

[pilothouseman · 1/10 · 17 June 2007]

It would be a further torment for me even to try to describe this movie so I will not. I can only say that I watched this with the MST3K commentary and it was still bereft of any entertainment whatsoever. Normally those guys can make any bad movie fun but not this one. I ask myself 'how could anyone with a conscience produce and distribute this?' I mean I could understand if it was a snuff film or porn but this is an atrocity. I have to write another line to fulfill the 10 line minimum and I had another thought as to the reason for this film. Its a product of warped American car culture. A excuse to make-out at the drive in theater. Yes, that explains a lot of bad movies.

Absolutely incredible loser

[angelynx · 2/10 · 30 December 1998]

So low-budget that not only are all the supposedly hideous mutilations and murders unseen (people just wince and turn away while the narrator tells us how horrible it is), but in a scene you will not believe, a scientist leaves his lab, returns to find it trashed, and *a voiceover TELLS us the monster did it!!!* I mean, mother of mercy! To polish it off, while the monster is being pursued thru a storm drain, it suddenly disappears - and it's discovered that the astronaut (which the monster was supposed to be, in mutant form) has been discovered safe and sound hundreds of miles away! So what were we chasing? Where did it go? What the frag happened and why did anyone bother to make a movie about it?! Really makes your brain hurt...

Astro Nuts

[sol-kay · 3/10 · 20 November 2009]

(There are Spoilers) The fact that the movie "Monster A Go-Go" is so disjointed and indescribable is that It took some four years to complete. When money ran out for the futuristic outer space epic in the spring of 1961 the film was shelved and it wasn't until four years later that it was finally completed. By them most of the original cast was either dead unlivable or just had better things to do and were not at all interested in being in the movie.

In what seemed to be the director's cut of the film we have this astronaut Frank Douglas make a crash landing in his space capsule that results in the helicopter pilot, Jim Taylor, who's to pick him up end up dead from radiation poisoning. The average size Douglas has grown to be 10 feet tall from his trip in space as well as having lost his mind in not knowing who, his superiors at NASA, to report to after he landed on earth. This has Douglas slump around the countryside, as well as in nearby Chicago, killing a number of people, by omitting radiation, who just happen to be within as little of five feet away from him! We have somewhat of a plot in that Dr. Henry Logan's brother, who are both played by the same actor, Conrad had in fact found the mixed up spaceman and locked him up in his laboratory pumping Douglas up with large doses of anti-radiation drugs in order to cure him from his deadly radioactive infection. This all goes nowhere with Douglas getting more and more radioactive as the anti-radiation drugs seem to have the exact opposite effect on him.

***SPOILERS*** Just when everything looks hopeless with Douglas about to annihilate the entire city of Chicago with its 5 million inhabitants the film changes course into a Twilight Zone like ending with Douglas, off camera, now back to normal after being picked up by a US Navy rescue crew in the Mid-Atlantic! We're, those of us still awake in the audience, told by the movie's narrator that what we just saw up until then, Douglas' rescue, was just something that can't be explained, like the movie, by modern science and we should just take it as fact, or Gospel truth, since were not that advanced, through the evolutionary process, to fully understand it!

You can take everything in the movie with a gain of slat in that it was very difficult to make heads or tails of it's plot, in that it took four years and two different sets of cast members to make, but its title-"Monster A Go-Go"-was just too much to swallow. Not only didn't we see the monster-Frank Douglas-participate in any go-go dances even though there was a disco scene in the movie but we only got to see the films major star, whom it was titled after, the monster him or itself- played by 7 foot 6 inch tall Henry Hite-for less then 15 seconds in the almost 70 minute movie! That by far less then any of the other mostly uncredited characters in the film!

"What you are about to see may not even be possible"

[deneen0 · 1/10 · 6 February 2009]

During the 1960s, crappy movies were being made left and right, classic compost piles like "Red Zone Cuba" and "Manos the Hands of Fate". But nothing as quite as bad as the atrocious monstrosity that is "Monster A Go-Go". This movie is so awful that just thinking about it makes me shudder. There are so many things wrong with this film, the script, the acting, and the classic phone ring that sounds suspiciously like a stage hand making a buzzing sound. After viewing this film "that may not even be possible", you'll wish that it really isn't possible, you'll wish this film never would have been made. The entire film consists of: scientists arguing for no reason, random monster killings where the victims are "horribly mutilated", dancing teens (this must be the A Go-Go part), and some civil defense footage thrown in for good measure, and an ending that will leave you confused, sad, and depressed, the films saving grace? the excellent soundtrack that includes some guitar scales and what sounds like a tuba being dropped over and over again. If you're watching the MST3K version, there are some great references to be had, "The Gods Must be Crazy", "Monty Python", and Gary Newman (Cars) just to name a few. The guys get some really good cracks in there (Why general!, hey Timmy my dad's dead again, can I come over for dinner?). In conclusion, classic MST. "There! your announcer feels vindicated".

There's an, uh, continuity problem in this movie

[DarkMog · 1/10 · 2 April 2000]

Now, upon hearing the title, one might think that this is just another bad, bargain-basement monster movie. But it's really so much more! Now, there's something that sets this apart from all the other movies of it's type--continuity. Plan 9 From Outer Space has continuity. Hobgoblins has continuity. Red Zone Cuba has continuity (oh, wait--bad example). Hey, even Gamera vs. Guiron has continuity, I'll give it that. This doesn't. Helicopters fly through the air, people die, monsters wander through the countryside, and you couldn't break the IMDB rule of not revealing a spoiler if you tried. It really isn't that fun to watch, but much hilarity comes from the utter ineptness of the direction and scripting, especially with the end. For the serious moviegoer, avoid at all costs... but if you were a serious moviegoer, why would you be reading a review of Monster a-Go-Go, anyway?

Is it here yet, or has the cosmic switch been pulled?

[Hey_Sweden · 4/10 · 21 November 2021]

A space capsule crashes back down to Earth, and the astronaut aboard, Frank Douglas, subsequently disappears. But then, a gigantic, radiation-infused "monster" (Henry Hite) starts haunting the area, and the "heroic" scientists in this yarn believe that the monster must actually be Frank, affected by his trip to space. Eventually, our rampaging beast makes his way to Chicago, where the whole movie goes even more downhill.

The inauspicious debut for Wisconsin-based schlock filmmaker Bill Rebane, this was begun by him in 1961, but was abandoned after the funding ran out. Then, years later, the legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis got his hands on it, filmed some additional scenes & added the (priceless) voice-over, and released it to drive-ins.

"Monster a Go-Go", despite its title, has precious little to do with hip, happening young folk, although there is the requisite scene of kids dancing and digging it. Mostly, what we get is a lot of padding in this unfortunately dull B flick. Movies like this should AT LEAST be fun and entertaining for their lack of style, cheesy if sincere acting, amusing dialogue, and less than "special" effects. But "Monster a Go-Go" (which Rebane himself calls "the worst movie ever made) just can't generate enough laughs to make it that fun. It's a largely uneventful picture that gets bogged down in talk. The cast is universally charisma-free. The music (by a band called "The Other Three") is a hoot, with some hysterical lyrics for the theme song, but we don't hear enough of it.

B movie enthusiasts may want to watch this just to be able to say that they've seen it, but it doesn't exactly come highly recommended. The ending, probably meant to throw us for a loop, is simply ridiculous.

Four out of 10.

A film so bad that it kills the soul

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 16 April 2013]

Admittedly I wouldn't have seen Monster-a-Go-Go if I hadn't watched MST3K. There it was described in such a way that I immediately decided to see it if it really was as bad as made out to be. After seeing Monster a-Go-Go, it is as bad as people have said and worse. The movie's problems are so vast that if you had a notebook and pen and were writing down the flaws as you went along you are guaranteed to have a full notebook. Seeing as there is a word limit on IMDb I can't do a notebook's worth of flaws, but I'll mention the main problems in as simple a way as possible. I'll apologise in advance though because after reading the reviews here that described the badness of the movie so well I thought to myself what else is there left to say, so if you don't like repetition you might not want to read on.

Monster a-Go-Go is very badly made. And I don't just mean rushed editing or the like, I mean a proper amateur's job all round. The camera work was often enough to make what was going on on screen incoherent and the sets looked as though they were going to fall over any minute. And not in quite some time have I heard dialogue this horrendous(you'll be laughing out loud at its cheesiness and irrelevance), and the fact that it's badly recorded doesn't help. As for the story, what story? Almost nothing happens, and when something does happen it is done in a dull way and never comes together as a whole. The ending is one of those screw-the-audience endings and the absolute worst in this regard, it actually makes you feel cheated, you do not want to feel that watching a movie. The characters are useless, even the ridiculous-looking monster, and to say that the acting is like watching robots is an insult to robots. The music is the best thing about the movie, but that's not saying very much.

To conclude, every bit as bad as its reputation. I'm not entirely sure whether it's the worst movie ever made just yet, but it is certainly down there as one of the worst. 0/10 Bethany Cox