Before I watched this, I wondered if it was called The Black Scorpion because it was a shadow scorpion.Something like the shadow crayfish from Teenagers from Outer Space.Just when I thought that was a dumb idea, I find out I'm right!The story is about scientists studying a volcano and encountering giant scorpions.The entire time they are on top of the volcano, there is smoke rising from the ground.Yet when they descend into it,there is no smoke.As usual, lots of dumb things happen.The movie takes place in Mexico so of course all the main characters are American and there is a parent-less child.The rich American woman lives in a mansion that has no doors because bugs don't exist in Mexico.When the main characters find an abandoned house, they hear what they think is a rattlesnake.It turns out to be a baby who doesn't have a rattle.A minute later they hear a lion roar and they go to investigate, after sitting the baby down as awkwardly as possible.A branch falls off a tree and reveals a dead policeman because that's a thing.But in between those two incidents, the greatest thing that ever happened in a movie happens.The scientist sits down with the baby and mentions it hasn't made a sound and then he says the greatest thing ever.Keep in mind this guy is at least 50 years old.He says "If I ever have any of my own I think I'll feed them beans and tortillas too.Then I'll be able to get some sleep nights".What?!?! That asks so many questions.Does he think Mexicans only eat beans and tortillas?Do they only eat beans and tortillas?Does he think beans and tortillas keep babies quiet?Just Mexican babies?All Mexicans?Does he think a baby being quiet for one minute is a long time?Does he think he will really have a baby now if he hasn't yet?That scene earned this terrible movie a second star.

Volcanic activity in Mexico frees an enormous variety of scorpion from entombment in the Earth. The beasts proceed to terrorize the locals, and it's up to macho geologists Hank Scott (Richard Denning) and Arturo Ramos (Carlos Rivas) to help save the day. Naturally, Hank also has to spend whatever spare moment he's got romancing rancher Teresa Alvarez (Mara Corday).You're assured a reasonably good time with 1950s genre perennials Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") and Corday ("Tarantula") as the stars, and with Willis O'Brien of "King Kong" fame doing the stop motion animation of the creatures. Now, granted, it's slow to start, tends to get dialogue heavy at times, and the romantic subplot also helps slow down the pace while the movie should be building to a peak. But "The Black Scorpion" hits its stride at the beginning of the middle third, once the creatures make their appearance. If you're anything like this viewer, you'll be laughing with appreciation every time they make an appearance. (Especially when they're shown in close-up. I, for one, wasn't aware that scorpions drooled this much.) The highlight has to be the big set piece when Hank and Arturo descend into the scorpions' lair and encounter not just the arachnids, but a tentacled worm that was originally intended for use in the "ravine bottom" sequence in "King Kong". Some of the special effects are dodgy, but that doesn't apply to O'Briens' work, which is impressive as always.Denning, Rivas, and Corday are engaging leads who receive capable support from supporting players Mario Navarro (as the annoying tag along kid Juanito), Carlos Muzquiz (as Dr. Velazco), Pedro Galvan as Father Delgado, and Arturo Martinez as Major Cosio. Navarro is appealing, but he's required to play a kid who only succeeds at putting himself in harms' way in his attempts to "help".Not among the best "giant creepy crawlie" features of the 1950s, but it's still pretty good fun, with an appropriately rousing finale.Seven out of 10.

If you can forgive that "The Black Scorpion" has a low budget (which means not only is it in black and white, but there's stock footage used and limited use of Willis O'Brien's special effects), it's an enjoyable B-Movie. It's a monster movie made very much in the style of the decade about a giant scorpion that terrorizes unsuspecting humans. There are some scenes of genuine tension and horror, which is always a bonus, but odds are you're coming to this movie because the monster right? How do the Willis O'Brien effects look? As you might have suspected, the star of the film is easily the stop-motion effects, so if you're a fan of the medium it's an enjoyable flick and the special features on the DVD are excellent.On the things I really enjoy about the film is that once you've seen it, you notice clips and screen caps of it everywhere. If you've ever seen "Teeth", that movie about the girl with razor-sharp fangs in her vagina, there's a point in the film where the lead girl happens upon a clip of "The Black Scorpion". The scene she watches, a close-up of the film's monster with its wide mouth full of teeth and its pincers gnashing gives makes her eyes go wide and in a very clever way gives you a pretty good mental image of what her mutation probably looks like.There is a nice variety in the monsters and a good battle scene towards the end where the titular creature attacks a train and then faces off against the army. Basically, the movie is fun whenever there are giant creatures on the screen, but when it comes to the story, it's pretty generic. The film is just average monster mayhem with uneven quality in story and pacing and I give it a mild recommendation, higher if you're a fan of Willis O'Brien or his most famous pupil, Ray Harryhausen. (Dvd, May 17th, 2012)

I caught this movie on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was almost a pretty good movie, not in the same class with others the gang of the Satellite of Love have riffed. This film features pretty good monster effects for the time and an interesting premise. The thing that drags the film into the not all that good realm is the lack of anything really going on anytime the scorpions are not on the screen and terrorizing the locals. Which happens a lot, unfortunately. Making the scenes where there is nothing going on but speculation drag on. Add an annoying child and a pointless love story arc and at times you almost forget there are killer scorpions on the rampage. Heck, near the end the film seems like it is wrapping up and we finally get the scorpions coming back and staging their final assault.The story has a volcanic eruption that causes a lot of damage to a small town. Well, not only does it cause destruction by the typical way a volcano causes damage it also unleashes something horrific...giant scorpions! A couple of scientist guys try to figure a way to stop this horde of arachnids from their reign of terror and it soon leads them to a hole that takes them to the very depths of the earth where even more horrors await them and their sidekick annoying child who just wanted to help.This movie was featured on Mystery Science Theater during their first season. I usually find the first season episodes to be a bit weak, but this was one of the strongest ones. It helps that the film is not too terribly bad...I actually think that a almost good or okay film works just as well for riffing as does a completely horrid film, sometimes they work better. You get into the film a bit and then something stupid does happen and they catch it and it enhances it.So this film was not terrible, just nothing good either. I like the whole cave portion of the film and when scorpions were on the attack, but the other aspects of the story were simply too weak and too much like things we had seen countless times before. The opening reminded me of, Beginning of the End and other films of the giant bug genre. The monsters looked good most of the time, but there were times they simply looked bad when you could see through them. So a bit of work, and this one could have been pretty good, but as it is, a rather nice episode of MST3K.