Schlock

How awesome is Landis' performance? :o

Landis first film and it shows; it's a very cheap spoof on the classic monster movies. The movie is saved by the clear enthusiasm that went into it. Not in the least by Landis who plays the titular monster himself. The funniest scenes are when Schlock just kind of jokes around with people, these scenes have a nice improvised feel. Despite the very low budget the ape suit made by Rick Baker, for whom this was his first credited movie, is very convincing.

Landis' debut is essentially a glorified student film made by an enthusiastic nerd for shits and giggles. The homages to classic monster movies are present and mostly correct, and the goofiness works until it doesn't. At that point it just spins its wheels repeatedly as the meagreness of its central conceit becomes increasingly apparent and a real liability. It would have fared better as a short. As it stands, it's a curiosity for fans of Landis, who went on to much better things.

Either a hommage to or a spoof of 50s monster movies, to the point where Landis spends 10 minutes on the characters watching The Blob. Trouble is, everyone already knows those films were cheesy, and as much fun as it is watching Landis running around smalltown California in a gorilla suit ripping the arms off people to the tune of Also Sprach Zarathustra, the joke wears really thin when the movie starts becoming cheesier than the ones it supposedly spoofs. Later on, Landis would evolve thumbs.

Score based on distant memory.