Night of the Blood Beast: In this 50's sci-fi Roger Corman quickie a returning astronaut (Michael Emmet) crash lands in the hills outside of Cape Canaveral and is discovered by a rescuer (Ed Nelson) and his photographer (Georgianna Carter).The astronaut appears dead and they bring him back to base camp/shack. After a more thorough examination, it turns out he isn't dead after all, but pregnant with what appears to be six sea monkeys. Then the father shows up (An Owlbear) who is an alien that may or may not have peaceful intentions.Is the Alien really peaceful? Will the astronaut's fiancee (Angela Greene) still go through with their wedding now that he is no longer "pure"? Who decapitated and ate the brains of the doctor (Tyler McVey)?The Good: For a quickie Sci-Fi film this has some pretty good mind-bending adult themes. For starters we have a man becoming pregnant by an alien creature and he defends this creature as a teenage girl would defend a delinquent to her parents. The alien talks in quiet tones and proper English about family and immigration as he makes the case for him and the astronaut to raise the babies on their own. We have the hot-headed men who want to kill them just for being different ( The rescuer above and John Baer). The fiancee is conflicted, happy to have her man back but feeling he has changed and is no longer the alpha male she was going to marry.I would be remiss to not mention Georgianna Carter. She is beautiful yes, actually quite stunning, but that is not unusual in fifties sci-fi. She has a more out of time quality. Have you ever seen those shows that purport to show a woman using a cell phone in a silent film from the twenties or a photo of a modern traveler during the construction of the Panama Canal? With her hairstyle and mannerisms and even dress, she seems to be from at least two decades in the future. You just don't expect a character in s fifties Sci-fi quickie to have Rachel Hair.I know it gets a lot of flack but I like the alien's Owlbear costume. I had to smile every time it showed up.The Bad: Night of the Blood Beast is a low budget quickie. It's barely an hour long, the spaceship is a septic tank and there are six people in the entire film.In Conclusion: A somewhat well written (not shot mind you) sci-fi story that muddies the water of whether aliens are good or evil and bluntly muddies the water on a lot of gender roles as well. Clearly grading on a curve for a Roger Corman quickie, the film has a fun monster, a beautiful woman from the 90's and doesn't overstay it's welcome.

Imagine the most stereotypical example of 1950's drive-in science fiction and there's a good chance you'll be picturing something close to Bernard Kowalski's NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST. From executive producer Roger Corman, this is an epitome of the genre with all of the tropes you'd expect to find. If it weren't so dull, I'd call it a must-see classic. In the film, astronaut Major John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) appears to die when his spaceship loses control and crash-lands back on Earth. In what has to be the world's least enthusiastic response to a crashed space rocket and the death of a national treasure, a small team of scientists is sent to investigate the site. Major Corcoran is pulled from the wreckage and brought to a nearby lab where… cue the dramatic warbling sci-fi music…it's discovered that there are some bizarre irregularities in the man's blood. He appears dead but the condition of his corpse would seem to disagree. Then a strange magnetic field starts to interfere with the radios, and a large unseen creature assaults a member of the team outside the lab. It appears Major Corcoran did not return to Earth alone and the team gets a chance to ask the man himself when he awakens from his strange state of "not quite death". It seems the major made a new friend in space and believes it accompanied him home with the best of intentions for mankind. Is the major telling the truth? Or is he under its control?NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST has everything you could want from a cheesy 50's sci- fi: creeping shadows, melodramatic performances, a failure to understand science, and that warbling music. My problem isn't necessarily with this movie in particular; I just don't think I'll ever find appreciation for them. It seems a lot of science fiction from that era relied on tales of the strange to keep the audience engaged. The problem is I was born in a time when there are literally millions of bizarre stories competing for my attention so something as trivial as man dies in space mission, returns to life, and serves as an alien communication device isn't enough for me. Not if it's going to be this plodding anyway. It feels unfair to call this pacing slow, though, because our astronaut returns to life and the alien makes its presence felt within the first 15 minutes. Things are happening in this movie, semi-interesting things too, but they're done without any sort of excitement. If the characters are this bored….and mind you, one of them is murdered…then how can I be expected to get excited for it all? Things don't really get interesting until the end of the movie when we learn about the alien's intentions. It all culminates in a showdown at a nearby cave where the alien is cornered and is given a chance to explain its goal in a voice that sounds like Stan Lee through a megaphone. But is it a friend or foe?If this movie were remade for modern audiences, it would be a horror/thriller with a higher body count and bloody remains but then we'd miss out on some fantastic alien costuming. The outer space blood beast in this movie is a wonderful blend of Swamp Thing, one of those stupid Minions, and a cartoon parrot mascot costume. It looks incredibly stupid but, if I'm going to watch cheesy '50s science fiction, it's what I want in my space monster. You've got to feel bad for poor Russ Sturlin, the man in the costume. It looks large and unwieldy. But it made for the best part of the movie. So would I recommend NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST? Maybe. It's a little painful for modern cinema sensibilities but I bet fans of this particular era love it. It's got anything you could ask for in one of these movies with a memorably stupid alien costume to boot. I wouldn't be surprised to find out this has a cult following behind it and, regardless of how dull I found the movie, I think it'd be awesome to see someone in a blood beast costume at conventions or something. In my limited experience in this sort of film, I did enjoy it more than the Corman-directed WASP WOMAN but not by a whole lot. There are better ones out there. So, no, I guess I would recommend skipping this one. Or don't. I really don't feel too strongly one way or another here.

This is what a "B-film" sci-fi should be - fun, corny, a little scary and overall a decent film. Night of the Blood Beast (1958) has all of the cheesy goodness I would expect from a 1950s sci-fi horror. Fun to watch.The alien monster in the film is a real hoot - a classic example 1950s alien monster mania that is sure to get a laugh out of a few fans of movies of this type.This film is a hidden gem - silly and good enough to keep fans of classic sci-fi horror interested. This film will not disappoint fans of bad "b" films... it's so bad it's good! 6/10

Considering that the crew appear to have constructed the prop space capsule out of a septic tank, this is a decent little el cheapo scifi flick.A film buff with the slightest knowledge of the major auteurs goes into a B/W 1958 Roger Corman scifi film with a certain set of expectations. Within such parameters, this is a surprisingly well-made film, tense, moody, interesting, and moving along a pace that corresponds well with the plausibility factor. While none of the acting is spectacular, it is all competent and sometimes impressive. The script is surprisingly intelligent, especially considering the title. The title, however corny it may be, works well in this film due the portions of the plot dealing with the death and resurrection of an astronaut. There is a small bit of FX and monster make up in this film; you will be thankful to find out that it does not clash with the septic tank space capsule.Overall, this is an honest, well-constructed little drive-in type scifi/horror film that does the job it was designed for and more. It makes more sense, and is more satisfying than watching all the episodes of the new version of 'V.'