Beast From Haunted Cave

In the snowy mountains of South Dakota lives Gil, a guy who makes a living as a ski instructor and tour guide. He's hired by a group of people for a typical cross-country trek through the wilderness, but what he doesn't know is that this is actually an escape plan. These good folks are going to pull a heist then vanish quietly in the woods. It might have been a good plan if not for one tiny problem: the diversion they cause by blowing up a nearby mine disturbs a vicious monster. Trapped by bad weather in the middle of nowhere this band of crooks is monster food. This is Beast from Haunted Cave!

It's a good if campy setup for some monster mayhem. I like the notion of villains and heroes alike having to face off against a monster. The conflicts between the crooks and their guide are interesting. There's the added tension of the big boss's girl falling for Gil. This causes the ring leader to go ballistic, but he's no match for the athletic Gil.

The acting isn't great, but I've seen much worse. It's good enough to keep the interactions alive and keep the movie from being a complete bore. How could a monster movie be a bore? By waiting until the end of the movie to create any real fright, that's how.

We get a quick monster attack early on to let us know it's around. It stalks the cross-country group a little, but the tension from that is barely existent. Even when one of the crooks goes hunting it to prove he's not crazy we barely see anything of it. Finally near the end it decides to attack and cause some problems for the villains and the heroes.

The creature is spider-like. For the most part we see huge spider legs reaching into the screen to grab people. When we finally do see the creature in its entirety it doesn't really look like anything. It actually looks so bad that it may kill you with laughter which, needless to say, spoils some of the “frightening” scenes. This is too bad because the notion of keeping people webbed up in its cave so it can suck their insides out at its leisure is creepy, but it isn't played up enough to be much more than a side note.

What's up with Gil's sister Jill? We spend a few minutes with her early on, and it looks like she's going to be part of the story. Yet once the crooks' plans get into motion she drops out of the story like she had never existed. Sorry, Gil, Jill is nil.

Another problem is an abrupt ending with no follow up. They've developed the characters enough that some time with them to see how these events affect them, the one(s) that make it out alive that is, would be welcome. Instead we get a proverbial shove out the door.

MORALITY:

Typical for old black and white movies this is a tame movie. There's no strong language, sex, or nudity. The violence is typically mild and includes some fighting and campy monster attacks. One of the crooks is a drunk, and the main villain abuses his girlfriend.

SPIRITUALITY:

Stealing is bad, it will lead you to being eaten by a monster.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Don't spend a lot of time hunting for Beast from Haunted Cave, but if you happen across it without any expenditure of effort it's a mildly amusing old monster flick.

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