The Monolith Monsters (1957)
A meteor lands outside a small Californian desert town. On contact with water it grows and expands into a giant crystalline alien rock like monolith er' monsters that keep toppling over then growing into even more mighty monoliths whose fragments when touched turn humans into stone.
Quite an original idea in an era flooded by original science fiction ideas. Although it borrows a bit from films such as Them! (1954) with it's desert town in panic storyline a theme so favoured by it's writer Jack Arnold, it also delves that bit deeper into characters such as allowing English born Les Tremayne a side story of a news editor determined to use the disaster as a way to achieve personal success, rather than characters where cause and effect are the main requirements.
The huge crystalline monoliths are impressive effects as is the destruction of the dam in a bid to destroy them even though it's clearly the 'flashflood' effect on show to visitors as part of the Universal Studios backlot tour.In fact if you look closely at the town of San Angelo you'll notice a striking resemblance to Hill Valley from Back to the Future.
The Monolith Monsters to this day remains a unique and enjoyable science fiction film which looks splendid via the new Eureka Blu-ray.
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