bsmith5552 "The Monolith Monsters" was another of the low budget little Sci-Fi/Horror films turned out by Universal in the 1950s.This one is about a meteor crashing in the desert leaving a number of fragments scattered about. Geologist Ben Gilbert (Phil Harvey) stops among the fragments to add water to his car's radiator and takes along a meteor fragment for analysis.Back at the office, the fragment becomes wet with water and begins a reaction. The next day Gilbert's boss Dave Miller (Grant Williams) finds Gilbert essentially turned to stone with the fluids drained from his body. An autopsy by local doctor Reynolds (Richard H. Cutting) finds nothing. Newspaper man Martin Cochrane (Les Tremayne) wants to report the incident but is cautioned not to.Meanwhile on a school excursion on the desert, a little girl Ginnie Simpson (Linda Scheley), picks up a fragment to take home. Ginnie's teacher Cathy Barrett (Lola Albright) becomes alarmed when she learns of Gilbert's fate. Dave and Police Chief Dan Corey (William Flaherty) learn of this, they go immediately to the little girl's home. They find the girl's parents petrified and their farm in shambles with several more meteor fragments in evidence. Ginnie has survived but is in shock.Dr. Reynolds refers Dave, Cathy and Ginnie to Dr. Steve Hendricks (Harry Jackson) who discovers that Ginnie has begun to turn to stone. He feverishly tries to save her. In the meantime, Dave consults with his old professor, Flanders (Trevor Bardette) to try to find the cause of the trouble. They discover that the meteor and it's fragments grow to an astronomical size when exposed to water.Just then, as luck would have it, a thunder storm breaks out and.................................Most of the "horror" scenes are in the final quarter of the film. The first three quarters is spent trying to find out what is going on. I didn't find the monolith monsters all that scary although the premise of them rolling over the town suggests more horror than it shows.Grant Williams in his follow up to "The Incredible Shrinking Man" the previous year is nothing more than a card board hero this time around. Lola Albright would find fame as Peter Gunn's girl Friday in the TV series of the same name. Les Tremayne was a noted radio actor and voice over narrator. And watch for youthful Paul Peterson (as a paper boy), Troy Donahue and William Schallert in small unbilled parts.

Rainey Dawn This has got to be one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen: Killer Alien Rocks. I hated it but kinda liked it to a degree. It was pretty good up until the ending which was predictable and extremely lame. The first two-thirds of the movie was the best part to me - having elements of suspense and a few surprises to but the last third of the film was a let down - to me.I don't understand the real attraction to this movie with this really lame ending. The movie isn't good but it's not completely awful - it's weird. I really don't know how to feel about this film overall, neutral I guess.If you like weird, off the wall 1950s sci-fi movies then you might like this movie - just remember it's a meteor that crashed and it's about killer growing giant alien rocks.4/10

poe-48833 THE MONOLITH MONSTERS didn't impress me when, as a kid, I saw it on a local Late Night Creature Feature show. Granted, it WAS late (Midnight or thereabouts) and I wasn't exactly the most studious of students (the alleged science in the movie was far beyond my grasp)... These days, however, I can appreciate the movie on many levels. MOST impressive is the film's overall craftsmanship: it's nigh flawless. One can't help but wonder if THE MONOLITH MONSTERS was at least partial inspiration for the "CORPUS EARTHLING" episode of THE OUTER LIMITS (or "CRY OF SILENCE"). THE OUTER LIMITS (the original series only) was like a weekly dose of the kind of sci-fi shockers doled out in the 1950s; that's one of the reasons it remains the finest hour-long anthology in the history of Fantastic Television.

Wizard-8 Since its initial release to theaters, "The Monolith Monsters" has drifted somewhat towards obscurity, despite being made by a major Hollywood studio. That's too bad, because this is a pretty fun little "giant monster" movie, in part because there are some elements here that seem fresh compared to other '50s giant monster movies. The threat isn't something with intelligence (animal or otherwise), so there is a feeling that the characters are really dealing with something unknown and unheard of before. The idea of humanity being threatened with rocks is also an original one. The script is fairly intelligent, with enough science to feel smart yet not alienate any members of the audience. And the tone is serious, not campy in any way. The only objections I found were that it's never shown just exactly how the giant rocks feed off their human victims, and that it takes a bit longer than usual for a feeling of panic and urgency to build up. But those are minor quibbles; as I said earlier, this is a fun movie.