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19 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
More literary science fiction than prop filled space opera, 5 April 2002
6/10
Author: dvdeugs from Stillwater, OK, US

This movie was not deserving of being MST3K'ed. It clearly predates the American space program, and didn't have a huge budget. But what this movie had was a decent plot that didn't use random action sequences to move things forward, and several very thoughtful moments. It owes more to literary science fiction than to the ray guns of space opera, a very good thing in my book.

Okay, I'll admit there were some very hokey lines and some very ludicrous special effects. But it was still a good movie, all in all.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Standard 5O's NIGHT OF TERROR -minor B, 20 February 2003
Author: danm99 from San Francisco, CA

This interesting little abomination is easily the evil twin of BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE, another Corman low-budgeter from this memorable late 5O's drive-in golden era. There were many major and minor film gems, but not all were so bad, they're great. Some were interesting failures (like this Putrid Preciousness) and some simply sucked (like everyones' personal favorite, "The Cape Canaveral Monsters", whose prints need to be honorably enshrined - in embalming fluid).

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (As a kid, I just loooooved titles like that, fearfully imagining what that monster from the dark really looked like), due to its early scenes of eerie paranoia mood and subtle moments of terror, managed to humbly and very economically achieve this kid-scare trick, thus being reprieved from the embalming fluid fate. That impressivly irritating cheesey-weird organ (also used in SISTER BEAST'S HAUNTED CAVE) evoked the proper creepy atmosphere, which Corman was an efficient wiz at.

Those scary shots in the isolated woods in the Bronson Cave hilled area (interesting location with strange, silent mood as if there is some other lurking ominous presense nearby, watching) were nightmarish. That moment when something moved up right before the camera, blocking everything out was a surprising frightful moment - and those dark chilling shots of the woods, as something moves through the bushes - and that shadow of something very unworldly moving across the ground (actually the first monster 'Shadow Shot' filmed from that particular angle) - that shot of a giant shape moving outside along the window and that quick glimpse of IT! creeping down that dark claustrophobic hallway - BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

At 2:OO AM, in pitch black, that can cause those under-the -cover shivers (all I need is the proper female companion to hold dearly to). Then when poor old kindly Dr. Wymann loses his head - LITERALLY - when the two male leads find his body slumped over the bunk, with a fresh supply of high volume blood spilling down with major drip-drips. UGH! That was an early decapitation scene that really freaked me out. Maybe a life of crime would be safer than being an adventuresome scientist.

Then the "ALIEN" scene, with the mysteriously revived "deceased" astronaut standing behind one of those 5O's Whateverscopes, revealing utterly revolting animated parasites being bred in his body. (Are there any other kinds?) The alien blood beast is sure having its night: It impregnated the trespassing, intrepid astronaut - and made him bear its delightfully disgusting offsprings. Planned Parenthood miserably backfired with the worst grim forms of total dysfunction. What do you think of that? Any "hmmmmmmmm's" out there - or just prowling alien blood beast rapists. (AHHHH!!! NOOOOOW I GET THE TITLE! - DUH!!!). This is true science-fiction horror on its own gruesome little B-minus terms.

Well, I won't go on. You'll just have to see for yourself as to the mysterious fate of our scientific ground crew - and that enormously rude and overbearing blood beast. It's an old cheap B&W minus-B, but interesting if you happen to be in that certain 2:OO AM monster mood. LONG SHOCK THE BEAST BROTHERS!

P.S. That college age lady scientist was quite personally appealing to me at that formative late show age. The blood beast attacks her in the woods - maybe IT got infected by all that human contact - OR maybe it really does possess superior intelligence! Perhaps that's why this was her one and only film appearance. That's BEAST BIZ BABY! It's back to that bloody haunted night cave. GIVE BEAST A CHANCE!

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Even Baby Boomers Must Be Amazed, 29 September 2002
6/10
Author: popgun9 from San Diego, California

Typical of the "Z" sci-fi films of the fifties, the viewing of Night of the Blood Beast takes significant time-warp calibration in order to appreciate it. Even Baby Boomers must be amazed at how much progress the world has seen in four decades. Night of the Blood Beast sure served its purpose at the time, but by today's standards is a clunky relic. One major redeemable factor, though, is the unrelenting grimness of the movie. Kowalski brought the same dark tone to Attack of the Giant Leeches, a less talky and cohesive film. One curious observation is the extensive footage of the shirtless and hairy-chested astronaut. Hollywood almost always insisted on bare-chested men being shaved -- weird as it may seem. There are other envelope-pushing facets in Blood Beast (and Giant Leeches) if you look close enough. Kowalski probably knew what he was doing.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Aliens breeding within and on the rampage, 17 October 2005
7/10
Author: Chris Gaskin from Derby, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I recently picked up an American import of Night of the Blood Beast from a market stall for £2.00 and was certainly pleased I did. This is one of Roger Corman's better efforts.

An Astronaut returns from outer space presumed dead, but when a small group of people take him back to their remote lab, they find signs of life in him when examining his body. Afterwards, a strange looking clawed and beaked alien creature is on the rampage and kills one of the doctors. The astronaut then comes back to life and we learn that the sings of life in him earlier are actually aliens breeding within him. The doctors then head for a cave where they think the creature is and kill it by setting it on fire and the astronaut is killed too.

The filming locations for this movie may look familiar as it was filmed at Bronson Caverns, where many of these movies were shot including It Conquered the World and Robot Monster.

The cast is mainly made up of unknowns, the only star I've heard of is Ed Nelson (Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Brain Eaters).

This is worth catching if you get the chance. Enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Would`ve liked to have seen this at the drive-in, 24 July 2004
Author: mcdamsten (mcdamsten@yahoo.com) from United States

I did however see this on TV in the late 60`s. Gemini/Apollo had already made the rocket and base seem ridiculous. Informal staff or what? I did stick with it and enjoyed the fleeting glimpses of the creature and plot weirdness. Possible shock landmarks: First movie with alien pregnancy? Near beheading? A previous review mentions a hairy chest.I recall that I too was smitten with Georgiana Carter somewhat and thought she had a contemporary beauty as compared to other 50`s sci-fi ladies. Unfortunately The Wild Ride with Jack Nicholson was all else she was in. Also thought Michael Emmet was OK in this and Attack Of The Giant Leeches. And of course Ed Nelson smokes cigarettes and adds energy to the proceedings. All in all one of my favorite 50`s schlock/sci-fi movies. Available at a nice price from Collectables. On the strength of being THE Georgianna Carter movie ** out of *****

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Sci-fi beefcake, 17 November 2007
7/10
Author: ace-150 from United States

An entertaining piece of low budget schlock. Despite the cheesy production values, it's quite well done. A zombified, hairy chested scientist, denied the opportunity to wear a shirt after his pseudodemise, is impregnated with alien sea monkeys, clearly an homage to the ads inside comic books of the era. Why is it that, when Roger Corman is involved, there's a always a shirtless, hairy chested scientist, e.g. Giant Leeches, Crab Monsters? I don't get it, but thanks a million, Roger. The plot and characters are no worse than in any other sci-fi from the fifties and all the actors are veterans of genre TV and movies. The lighting is sometimes good, the score is theremin heavy with an occasional moment of Felliniesque jauntiness. The monster is post-nuclear Sesame Street, but after all the money spent on the sea monkey x-ray scene, you can't have everything. If you pay attention to the opening title sequence, you'll note that the rocket ship separates from its booster rocket and looks amazingly like the space shuttle. Sometimes they get it right.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Makes a tad more sense than a lot of Corman's Sci-Fi Flicks, 24 December 2006
5/10
Author: (vigilante407@gmail.com) from Pennsylvania, United States

For a Roger Corman movie, Night of the Blood Beast had somewhat higher production values than most. Maybe that was because Corman was just Executive Producer on this one. The special effects were actually pretty good, and the monster costume wasn't all that bad. The story also seemed a bit more believable than a lot of his oeuvre. The acting was fairly good for a genre pic, and the cast was very believable.

The only thing that really annoyed me about the movie was a number of scenes in which the characters were able to get a blood pressure reading off of a presumed-dead body (with no heartbeat) ... those elicited a definite groan from me.

This was one of about ten sci-fi movies from the fifties that I hadn't seen until it showed up in the "Tales of Terror" boxed set from Mill Creek Entertainment.

If you're a fan of the genre, definitely give it a look if you get the chance ... its no Quatermass, but its also no UFO: Target Earth, either.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Gulity Pleasure from B movie Hell, 17 July 2006
6/10
Author: Dukey Flyswatter from United States

If you analyzed all of the elements and faults of this picture it would seem that there would be absolutely no reason for enjoying it but still I go back to it as late night comfort food again and again.It just has a bottom of the barrel we got no money but screw it sincerity to it that I have to admire and if you took away all the stale acting,looney dialogue and dire effects you can find a pretty good and original concept or two for a teen flick of it's time one of it's notions would crop up twenty some years or more for ALIEN.Pretty cool.If this movie had a script by Charles Griffith,Beverly Garland as one of the Femmes and had a much better critter than the left over Monster from Teen Age Cave Man than this would be more of a minor Corman classic like Not Of This Earth .Roger Corman executive produces for the company that his brother Gene briefly tried to maintain.Bernard Kowalski keeps it grim and moving faster than he did in Attack Of THe Giant Leeches. Give it a break. I bet the people slamming it even enjoyed it a little.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyable B flick for the schlock fans., 3 February 2006
6/10
Author: SickBoySimon from Brentwood, USA

Astronute crashes to Earth, seemingly dead, but soon awakens to discover that he is filled with alien embryos and the parent is lurking some where near by!

An admittedly interesting story helps to uplift this B thriller from the great Roger Korman. Although the budget of this film shows, like the fact that there a so few people at this 'space station' and the films nicely hokey-looking alien monster, that only makes this film all the more entertaining to those who dig these sort of low-budget gems.

The cast isn't half bad either, especially considering just what kind of B flick this is!

B fans will find this number worth a turn.

** 1/2 out of ****

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Lesser Corman Effort is Still Fairly Good, 10 December 2005
5/10
Author: mrb1980 from Arizona

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

While not on par with producer Roger Corman's other "classics" like "Not of This Earth" and "Little Shop of Horrors", this film is pretty good on its own terms. Semi-remake of "The Thing" has astronaut Emmet returning to earth apparently dead. A scientific crew at a remote base recovers his body, only to find that something has forced objects into the body. Shortly thereafter, Emmet comes back to life and is found to have alien embryos living in his body. But where is the alien?

Sure enough, the alien shows up and kills a few members of the crew, who can't call for help because their radio is dead. It turns out that the alien is using Emmet's body as its first step in colonizing earth. After a few more unpleasant encounters and an impassioned speech by the alien seeking understanding, Emmet commits suicide rather than act as "mother" to the embryos and the remaining crew members burn the alien to death with Molotov cocktails.

Ed Nelson, as usual, is very good and Emmet is fine in a very unusual role. However, the alien is downright laughable; it looks something like half-bear, half-giant bird. The film's not really noteworthy, but is worth catching.

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