Creature of Destruction
Directed by Larry Buchanan
Written by Tony Huston
USA/1966
Azalea Picures
First viewing/YouTub
[box] Opening title card: There is no monster in the world so treacherous as man. Montaigne.[/box]
If only the monster had more screen time this could qualify as a fun bad movie. Unfortunately, he only shows up briefly and usually after dark.
A mad hypnotist (Les Tremayne) discovers that his beautiful assistant was a sea monster in a previous life. He figures out how to revert the assistant to monster form. He starts making predictions of the future predicting time and place of a bunch of murders. Both an open-minded military psychologist and the cops have identified the hypnotist has being behind the murders. There’s other stuff that happens, including of teenagers dancing to a rock band. Admittedly, I was not paying close attention but little of the plot really made sense to me.
I took a break from the high-brow viewing at the top of my 1967 list to watch Larry Buchanan’s Creature of Destruction. Buchanan is in my pantheon of so-bad-its-good movie directors so I had to. This is another cheapie feature made to pad out AIP’s television package.
Imagined conversation –
Costume and makeup designer: How am I supposed to create a creature with only $10?
Buchanan: Well I have this old wet suit.
Designer: Will it fit the actor?
Buchanan: We will make it work.
Designer: What about the face?
Buchanan: Well I still have the ping pong ball eyes left over from Curse of the Swamp Creature! (1966). LOL.
