Monster on the Campus (1958)

Director: Jack Arnold

Writer: David Duncan

Starring: Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue, Phil Harvey, Helen Westcott, Alexander Lockwood, Whit Bissell, Ross Elliott

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Chills! Thrills!

Plot: The blood of a primitive fish exposed to gamma rays causes a benign research professor to regress to an ape-like, bloodthirsty prehistoric hominid.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This is the last film of five in the Universal Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection DVD set and even though it's the least of the lot, it's still kind of fun.  By no means a classic, it's got a lot of good going for it including the performances, story and pacing.  It's not trying to do anything all that different with the genre but it succeeds in being a somewhat entertaining flick that probably won't make you regret giving up a little bit of your time (77 minutes) which is long enough to try to get to second base on that first date at the drive-in.  It's clear almost immediately who the killer is but no one in the movie knows until almost the end.  The monster makeup isn't too shabby.  They could've spent more effort on decorating the lab more but this is low budget stuff (for a major studio at least).  The movie looks good and it's a quick watch.  The picture quality on all of the films in this set is magnificent.  The only extras in the set are the trailers for each film.