Idyllic coastal setting, and I'm a sucker for lighthouses, is the setting for this "monster on the beach" outing that owes a bit to Creature from the Black Lagoon (the monster is basically a stripped down Gillman without the distinctive detail to the costume that made it so memorable and special). California coastal community of Piedras Blancas is suffering a string of beheadings to the locals (it literally goes for the jugular), and it's possible the lighthouse keeper (John Harmon) has known about its existence, living in a cavern nearby, and kept it secret. Forrest Lewis is the constable out to find the killer and stop it, and Lee Tremayne is the doctor/scientist lending his expertise to help identify what it is. Jeanne Carmen is Harmon's daughter, and Don Sullivan is Carmen's beau. Sullivan is studying with Tremayne in a mentor/pupil dynamic. Not enough monster, some rough acting (clear indication some of the actors were struggling with their lines, and the long dialogues seemed to be a chore for some of them to endure), and pacing issues hinder the entertainment value. There is some dead space that just seems to devour the running time. Even at 71 minutes, it feels long. Severed heads (including one scene where the Reptiliman is carrying a bloody head, another where there's a crab crawling on a discarded head in the cavernous home of the monster) add shock value, some description of the monster's handiwork is grisly even if not shown, and there's a haunting scene where the father of a victim carries his child with the locals behind him as he marches up a sidewalk to the constable. I guess I would have boosted my rating had we seen some extra skin from Carmen, but what we do have is rather a slog that kind of drags and energy in the direction is lacking. The face of the monster, when revealed, is disappointing, to say the least. The right move was ending the film using the lighthouse. I think what is definitely missing is a key B-movie actor, like a Denning, Marshall Thompson, or Carlson, to anchor the film as far as a charismatic presence. At their best, the cast is serviceable, if no one is exactly extraordinary. This kind of film was begging for a Universal Studios budget and a helmer like Jack Arnold to move the plot along more effectively. As a creature feature, this is no better or worse than those cheesy Corman/Blaisdel efforts (which had some fun casts and a sense of humor).

This story takes place in Piedras Blancas, a point located along the California coast. Killing by unknown assailant starts to happen in the town near the light house of Piedras Blancas. The victim is decapitated and the blood from their bodies are missing. Little do the people of the town know, the cause of this incident started when the owner of the butcher shop refused the sale of scrap meat to the light house attendant. The light house attendant is keeping a secret that the whole town will soon find out.Piedras Blancas exists in California coast along the part of Pacific Coast Highway, called Cabrillo Highway about 60 miles north west of San Luis Obispo, and 90 miles south of Monterey Peninsula. It's a picturesque part of the state where you can see endless expanse of the Pacific ocean, and sparsely forested hills of California. There's an actual light house there where presumably this movie was shot. There's no town as such that's depicted in this movie near this point.There is a monster in this movie as the title suggests. It looks very much like the creature that appeared on the movie "It ! The Terror from Outer Space" with some modifications. The story is rather thin, but because the monster has a good presence, this movie is entertaining.At just over an hour, the movie is short, but it's just the right length to tell this story. Not a big budget movie, but it has decent story and good acting. Recommended for '50s sci-fi movie fans.

A 7ft tall, prehistoric, amphibious reptile terrorises the folk of a coastal town in its search for red meat, which it now prefers over its old diet of fish thanks to being fed scraps by lonely lighthouse keeper Sturges (John Harmon). After killing several people in its quest for protein (by removing the victims' heads with inexplicable surgical precision), the scaly beast is eventually hunted down by a group of gun-toting locals, but not before it carries off Sturges's daughter Lucy (Jeanne Carmen) in time-honoured movie-monster fashion.An independent horror flick produced by ex-Universal employees Irvin Berwick and Jack Kevan, The Monster of Piedras Blancas was clearly influenced by The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), for which Kevan helped create the iconic gill-man costume; Piedras Blancas's monster isn't quite on a par with 'The Creature', however, having been cobbled together using moulds made for earlier films The Mole People and This Island Earth, and the film lacks the excellent production values and great pacing of the Universal classic.But although matters move slowly to start with, threatening to send the viewer to sleep at times, hang on in there 'cos things gradually pick up: Jeanne Carmen provides the film with some 'cheesecake' when she is spied upon by the monster; there's an early example of graphic gore which must've proved quite shocking in the '50s (the monster appears holding a bloody severed head, albeit in black and white); and the final struggle between Lucy's beau Fred (Don Sullivan) and the monster atop the lighthouse is a real hoot. I also found the film's doctor (played by Les Tremayne) to be the source of a few unintentional laughs: he hands out pills like they were candy and likes to get his patients on their feet no matter how serious the injury.

I saw this little movie by accident on a hot summers night in 59 or 60.It showed up out of nowhere at my neighborhood theater (Lyric Theater Chester Pa.) I had never heard of this little gem and I always knew all the movies that were being released back then because I was a movie and theater house junkie. I don't know for sure but I think it didn't get much play on the East coast for some reason or other. Well I'm either 13 or 14 and eagerly go in after being impressed by the posters. Could this be a diamond in the ruff that I never heard of? DA DA It was!! A real nice little scary as hell monster flick that has stuck with me over the years. I wont go over the plot or the monster suit for all you other posts have covered that nicely.I will discuss the scariest moment ( I guess this contains spoilers) When that monster comes out of the walk in freezer with the grocers head I just about (you no what)jumped out of my seat. Nobody was expecting that at the time for it was a real quiet part of the film. This was a nice little low budget film that I grew to know and love. I just wanted to comment on the summary of this movie. Lighthouse keeper discovers monster in cave. Lighthouse keeper starts to feed monster from local grocery butcher store. Grocery store owner cuts off meat scraps for lighthouse keeper Monster guts hungry and decides to eat up the town. Geez didn't Betty White do the same thing in some alligator movie?