George Taylor As I read some of the other reviews, how kids were terrified by this, I have to laugh. I first saw it on TV when I was about 5, and even then found it inferior to The Blob. Having said that, it is a fun movie. The monster is creepy and for 1959, there are some really gruesome effects. I wish someone would re-release it with better dubbing. It seems that every foreign sf/horror/fantasy film from the 60's used the same six voices. This is a fun movie to see. In terms of Blob movies, I'd rate them: X-The Unknown, The Quatermass Xperiment, The Blob (58), The Blob (88). All fun movies.

Zapi Sisma Italian blob horror science fiction. Unfortunately I had a bad full screen copy, but it was great nevertheless. Based on a Mexican legend, Caltiki is a Mayan goddess who has sex with a creature from the sky. Here it's nicely put in the sf, where Caltiki is a twenty million years old giant one cell organism, and the creature in the sky is a meteor whose radiation is making it grow. It has everything, sexy dances of hot Mexican girls, gory scenes of faces and hands barred to the bone by acid, underwater scenes with skeletons and Indian treasure, explosions, 50s computers which calculate age of anything. Furthermore, our hero, played pretty good by British theater actor John Merivale, while hurrying home to save his wife and child from the ever growing blob gets arrested for speeding and has to escape from jail. At the end it's flamethrower armed tanks vs. the blob. All that in 70 minutes, so it's not your average slow 50s American science fiction horror, it's fast paced and never boring. But it's nicely shot also, and that's no wonder since the main photographer, and allegedly de facto director, is Mario Bava. Daniela Rocca is extra hot. Really fun, fast paced, smart camera.

Coventry With Mario Bava being my favorite filmmaker of ALL time, I couldn't afford myself to miss out on "Caltiki" as this film – along with the equally impressive "I, Vampire" - marks his debut as a director and then still the poor man didn't receive the proper credit he deserved for it. Riccardo Freda, the official director of the two films, is also a fairly prominent and admirable name in the Italian horror/cult industry, but both films simply have Bava's style and trademarks written all over them. His already gained craftsmanship as a cinematographer and his visionary look on directing built up during the fifties undoubtedly are the main reasons why Bava became one of the greatest of all time; starting from the early 60's already (with the tremendously brilliant "Black Sunday") and onwards. "Caltiki" clearly is a blatant rip-off of other and hugely successful "unidentified monstrous substance attacking people" Sci-Fi movies from throughout the 50's decade, like "The Quatermass Experiment" and most obviously "The Blob". But there were "The Blob" is an overall disappointingly dull and politically correct thriller, this Italian dish of deliciousness is a downright outrageous and extremely fast-paced shocker. The main characters are much more vivid and identifiable, the body count lies much higher, the violence is more confronting and the special effects and make-up art are more explicit than those featuring in American and British horror productions of that era. And still, in spite of the familiar concept, the screenplay of "Caltiki" nevertheless attempts (and often succeeds, I may add) to bring some variety and inventiveness. The titular monster doesn't come from outer space, for once, and it doesn't necessarily have to consume human flesh in order to grow in size or strength. "Caltiki" has always resided here on earth and relies on radiation instead to become more dangerous. It very much likes to turn victims into skeletons, but doesn't have to! How cool is that? A group of scientists and their whiny women embark on an expedition near an ancient Mayan temple in order to finally find out why an entire civilization just disappeared in a nick of time. Shortly after a volcano eruption it becomes clear to them that the lake underneath the temple homes a hideous and unstoppable monster. They have the opportunity to bring back a piece of the monstrous substance when the greediest member of the crew nearly loses his arm trying to reach for a piece of treasure when he clearly shouldn't have. Instead of researching the matter, they quickly find themselves battling the thing again as it grows in size and hunger. "Caltiki" is packed with suspense and an unexpectedly large amount of violence and disturbing imagery.

MARIO GAUCI This Italian sci-fi/horror film has been mentioned so often ever since I've been browsing the Internet (and prior to that on the occasional reference book) that it had practically acquired legendary status! Now that I've watched it myself, I can say that it's an effective blend of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955) and Mexi-Horror – though it's not as intellectual as the former, nor as campy as the latter (on the accompanying Audio Commentary, Luigi Cozzi also mentions the Japanese sci-fi THE H-MAN [1958] as a possible influence); the climax, then, seems to have been inspired by QUATERMASS II (1957) – while the archaeologists' discovery of footage shot by their missing/deranged companions actually looks forward to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979).For its miniscule budget (which shows in the distinct lack of extras during a conference held to announce to the world the historic find!), the film's look (Rome standing in for Mexico!) and make-up effects (quite repulsive for the time, with the monster scenes themselves being perhaps more extensive than contemporary genre efforts) are very convincing; the attack by the blob-like monster on lead John Merivale's house (with his wife and daughter trapped inside) is especially well done – and reasonably scary. The cast – also featuring Gerard Herter (an unsympathetic variant on THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT's Richard Wordsworth), Daniela Rocca and Arturo Dominici – is interesting as well and there's a fine, suitably rousing score by Roberto Nicolosi.The DVD supplements are superb (I'm lucky to be fluent in Italian) and include two separate interviews featuring genre exponent Luigi Cozzi – who attempts, firstly, to restore to its proper place screenwriter/designer Filippo Sanjust's undervalued contribution to the film and, then, outlines Bava's exact function behind-the-scenes (he didn't actually direct any of it but, following Freda's departure, took charge during the editing stage) – and critic/historian Steve Della Casa – who talks about Freda's place in the history of Italian cinema and mentions an especially amusing anecdote involving Freda and another cult film-maker, Vittorio Cottafavi, on meeting one another in their old age at a Film Festival (each thought the other would look down on his work only to discover that they were secret admirers of one another!). It's a pity, therefore, that film buffs unfamiliar with the language can't enjoy the Audio Commentary either, as it's a truly fascinating discussion: among other things, critic Giona A. Nazzaro voices his regret over the lost art of Italy's genre cinema; there's also an interesting sideline into the unusually creative contribution of editors to Italian films during this era, among whom Mario Serandrei (responsible for CALTIKI itself) was one of the undisputed masters; Cozzi, however, mistakenly refers to John Merivale as having played Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN TERROR (1965), when it was actually John Neville (Merivale didn't in fact appear in that film!).Finally, since Image's DVD of an earlier Freda/Bava collaboration – I VAMPIRI (1957) – hasn't gone out-of-print and, so, will probably not be part of Anchor Bay's upcoming Mario Bava releases, I may well spring for it in the near future along with THE GHOST (1963), an unwatched classic Freda that's been coupled with a German Krimi – DEAD EYES OF London (1961) – on the Retromedia DVD