Hitchcoc I've run across this film several times. I've only seen the whole thing once, but every once in a while, I will change the channel and see that goofy disembodied head, moving its lips but not saying anything. It has no lungs, so it can't really talk. But it does control people's thoughts. The whole plot is beyond ridiculous and if there are worse actors around, I don't know where they are. Still, someone said to someone else, "Imagine a head being found that had been buried separate from its body. What would that head do?" Well, you create a little history, have people act in goofy ways, make the thing indestructible, and go from there. It sounds pretty campy, but it is so slow moving and getting to the point that it suffers on the vine.

Michael_Elliott The Thing That COuldn't Die (1958)* 1/2 (out of 4) Laughably bad horror film from Universal about a group of people who find a mysterious case buried underneath an old tree. A teenage Jessica (Carolyn Kearney) has the ability to see the future and she warns her friends not to open the thing so naturally they do it anyway. Inside just so happens to be the decapitated head of a devil worshiper who was killed by Sir Francis Drake. THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE has the reputation of being one of the studio's worst films and I'm not going to defend it too much, although I still think there are worse out there. With that said, there's no doubt that this film is pretty awful at times but thankfully it gets bad enough to where you can actually just sit back and laugh at it. Poor Kearney is the cause of many laughs because her acting is just so bad that you can't help but feel bad for her. Even worse is some of the dialogue she's given to say and just check out the scene where she has a breakdown about "evil" things and then starts screaming how she wants people to die before making a tree fall on a woman. Say what? This entire sequence perfectly shows what's wrong with this movie but it made me laugh. The actual "monster" is just the decapitated head being carried around by a variety of people who then murder for it. This certainly isn't scary and the "effect" is only mildly entertaining. Outside of Kearney, the cast for the most part is decent, although no one really jumps off the screen. Charles Horvath plays a large, slow brute and it's so spot-on for Lon Chaney, Jr. that you have to wonder why the studio just didn't go out and get the real thing. THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE is a bad film. There's no question about that but I think most will at least be able to laugh at it.

mrb1980 As "disembodied head movies" go, this one's right at the top. The movie is workmanlike, the cast doesn't have famous actors although they are recognizable, and production values are decent. The silly story—a very old head searching for its body—is the only thing that may turn people off.The scene is an isolated guest ranch in California, where various beautiful people are spending a relaxing holiday, accompanied by the ranch's matronly owner, her slimy ranch foreman, and a dim-witted hired hand. One of the guests is a beautiful young woman who is clairvoyant—she finds hidden and buried things through some sort of mind power. See where we're going here? Eventually, the clairvoyant woman identifies a spot to dig for treasure, and a small, old chest is dug up. Naturally, the dopey hired hand opens the box, and there's a 400-year-old disembodied head of an evil sorcerer (Robin Hughes) inside. After being underground for so long, The Head needs to catch up on unfinished business in a hurry, so it hypnotizes most of the ranch's guests. To do this, The Head appears in unusual places (window ledges, closet shelves, hat boxes) and whispers inaudible, mystical instructions to its victims. Pretty slick, eh? After the convenient deaths of the foreman and hired hand (they had served their purposes in the story, after all), The Head—using the clairvoyant one—identifies a location to dig up its decapitated body. Sure enough, a coffin is produced and is promptly carried back to the main ranch house.The opening of the coffin is the highlight of the movie, and it's quite entertaining. The headless body stands up, whereupon one of the hypnotized women gently reattaches The Head…hmmm, pretty snug fit. The reunited sorcerer now decides to kill everyone, resulting in a "Whoa, this is bad" moment. Bullets don't work, so the movie's hero (William Reynolds) produces a magical anti-sorcerer amulet that was discovered at the beginning of the film. The bad guy jumps back in his coffin, whereupon he is transformed into a skeleton, marking the film's ending. After 400 years in a box, The Head only gets reunited with its body for about 60 seconds. Such a pity.I used to laugh at this silly film, but in the past few years it has grown on me a bit. The acting is really quite good, particularly by the dumb hired hand (Charles Horvath) and The Head himself (Robin Hughes). The hypnosis scenes, which I used to consider just hokey, are very fun to watch. If you can forget the ridiculous story line, this movie is worth viewing.

AngryChair On a California farm, folks uncover the served head of an evil colonial man which begins to possess people.A rather inventive story makes this old B film a stand out from the other monster flicks of its day. Director Will Cowan gives this film some compact direction, making a nicely dark atmosphere for the movie, even creating some occasional eeriness and a few good shocks along the way. The music score for this film is the same spooky score used for the sci-fi classic This Island Earth (1955). The cast is pretty good, Hughes is especially good as the films non-deceased villain. Not a bad watch for those looking for a B flick that's a little different from the average rubber-monster movie.** 1/2 out of ****