Universal was wrapping up their 50s series of budget conscious Sci-Fi/Monster movies in 1958 when this one came out. As a horror movie, it reminded me of the Universal horror films of the early 40s, particularly "The Wolf Man" (1941) of which "Monster On the Campus" has similar plot elements.Professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) is studying the evolution of man from Neanderthal days to the present. He has acquired a pre-historic looking fish that has somehow not evolved from its ancient state. Student Jimmy Flanders (Troy Donahue) is unloading the fish when his dog drinks water from a puddle containing blood from the fish.The dog undergoes a sudden change to a pre-historic version of itself becoming violent in the process. Blake's girl friend Madeline Howard (Joanna Moore) is attacked by the animal which is subdued and caged. Blake sets out to find the cause of the sudden change. In doing so, he cuts his hand on the fish's spines.Later when Blake is bringing a sample of the dog's saliva home, he takes ill and asks Nurse Molly Riordan to drive him home. On arriving home Molly is suddenly attacked by an person unknown. When police Lt. Mike Stevens (Judson Pratt) and Sgt. Eddie Daniels (Ross Elliot) investigate, they find Molly hanging from a tree, Blake semi-conscious and Blake's home in shambles. At first Blake is suspected but is exonerated when fingerprints found at the scene do not match his.Believing that it was Blake who was targeted, Sgt. Daniels is assigned to guard him. In his lab, a dragon-fly lands on the fish and becomes enlarged. Jimmy Flanders and his girl friend Sylvia Lockwood (Nancy Walters) witness the event. Blake meanwhile, has blood from the insect drip into his pipe....and you know what that means.A second murder occurs and Blake begins to suspect that he may be at the bottom of all of this. He goes to a secluded cabin owned by Madeline's father (Alexander Lockwood) to prove his theory. He sets up a tape recorder and cameras to capture proof of his theory. He then injects himself with the deadly serum and...................................The special effects, specifically the monster makeup are done on the cheap. The monster's face is a rather evident rubber Halloween type mask. The transformation scene is borrowed from "The Wolf Man", not very well I might add, and the transformation seems to only affect Blake's upper torso. The first two murders happen off-screen but the third involving an axe is quite gruesome.Arthur Franz was always one of my favorite actors. He never quite made it to the "A" list but delivered many memorable performances both in the movies and on TV over a long period. He rarely got the lead but his performance here, adds an air of authenticity to the story. Jack Arnold's crisp direction brings credibility to a low budget story.It's worth a look if only for Franz' performance.

I really don't know what to make of this film - it's an odd but kinda okay to watch. The movie isn't quite as fun as I expected it be but it wasn't all that bad either. Just a so-so film I guess.What got to me was when Prof. Donald Blake first got his hand in the prehistoric fish's mouth, the hand was bleeding badly and he didn't dress the wound, instead he wanted to move the fish tank and his hand slipped into the dirty fish water then he started sucking on the wound with the dirty fish water. WTF? Not what I would expect from a professor at all. But it was funny.The creature the professor became is kinda cheesy looking but that's what made it fun. The story is average. There is one scene which surprised me a bit - when the forest ranger got it with the axe - that was unexpected! Overall, it's not bad - just not one of the better Universal sci-fi horror films I seen.5/10

Jack Arnold directed this inferior science fiction thriller that stars Arthur Franz as college professor Donald Blake, who, after foolishly coming in contact with a recently discovered carcass of a prehistoric fish, transforms into a murderous Pre-human monster that terrorizes the campus, bringing in the local police to investigate, though only Donald can solve the recurrent transformations; that is, if he ever wises up... Film may contain the dumbest scientist in film history, let's see: First he puts his bare hands in the filthy water containing the fish, cuts himself, then sucks on the infected wound! A transformed dog that drank the watery(and irradiated) blood apparently doesn't clue him in any sooner about the change; Later, he carelessly smokes from a pipe also contaminated with the radiated blood, and only puts things together after many deaths, never contacting the police or colleagues, but stubbornly going alone, which leads to more deaths! Oh boy, what an idiot!

One of my all-time favorite low-budget directors was Jack Arnold- and MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS is one of the (many) reasons why. How many genuinely good "budget" films can be credited to a single director? If we're talking Atomic Age directors, precious few. Yet Arnold helmed many of the very best (including THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN). Add to that list MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS. While the budgetary shortcomings may sometimes be in evidence (the monster of the title looks not unlike the cheesy title character in TROG, a Joan Crawford fright film that scared the daylights out of me in a darkened theater when I was a kid), Arnold's capable direction never flags and there are some downright creepy goings-on here. Recommended viewing for fright film fans.