A while back I realized that Hulu had picked up the 80’s TV police series Hill Street Blues and remembering how much I liked it during its initial run, decided it was time for a grand rewatch. So far I’m about half-way through the third season, and it’s definitely holding up to my memories. Anyway, after so many hours among the cops of the Hill Street station and their assorted crises, I decided I needed something different as an antidote. Fortunately, 1957’s From Hell It Came provided that in spades.
Okay, so let’s begin with the obvious: the title. There’s something about it that strikes just right. If it had been turned around to the more simple “It Came From Hell”, it simply wouldn’t have the same panache or hold the same promise. As it is though, it gives the entire affair a certain something that would be hard for any 50’s B-level horror/sci-fi flick to live up to.
Then take a look at the incredibly lurid poster to the right. I’ve often in the past lamented that we don’t still get posters like that for movies today. Just one glance at that and I’m thinking “I don’t really know what that thing’s supposed to be, but I sure as heck want to find out!”
So let’s turn to the movie itself. The setting is an island somewhere in the South Pacific where the prince of a native tribe is about to be executed for a murder he didn’t commit, having been framed by the tribe’s witch doctor. He is staked out spread-eagle style and given just enough time to promise that though they may kill his body, his spirit will return from hell to seek vengeance on all those responsible for his death.
(No, I have no idea why he thinks his spirit would be headed to hell in the first place if he has done no wrong, but let’s just ride with it, shall we? After all, we have to justify that title somehow, right?)
So what is it that has the witch doctor in such an uproar? Well, it seems that some American scientists have come to the island to do some research, and he feels that the prince has gotten a bit too cozy with them, as he was trying to persuade his fellow tribesmen to try some of their medicines instead of the witch doctor’s more traditional ones, thus undermining the traditionalist’s position and authority.
Anyway, after curses all around, we get to the execution, which seems a bit excessive. Instead of simply plunging the sacrificial knife into the young prince’s heart by hand, one of the natives holds the knife in place while the other pounds it in with a long club made from a tree branch. This is only one of the interesting choices producer Jack Milner and his brother Dan Milner (who directed) make during this sequence as the natives proceed to “plant” the dead prince’s body in an oddly-shaped upright coffin and a voodoo doll and a couple of seemingly unrelated bones are also tossed into the grave. This is, of course, after the thankfully short requisite native dance which allows the film makers an opportunity to add a bit of sex appeal to the movie.
Meanwhile, what about those scientists who got the witch doctor in such an uproar in the first place? It seems they came to the island looking to measure excess radiation due to fallout from recent atom bomb testing in the area. What they found instead, though, was that the radiation levels were relatively normal, but there were instead signs of a plague.
There was apparently another scientist originally along on the trip who died on the island, leaving behind his Australian-accented widow who is constantly drunk (or at least drinking) and is trying to seduce one of the scientists. They are also soon joined by the fiancee of Tod Andrews’ Dr. William Carter, Terry (no, not Perry, unfortunately, though that would have brought an interesting twist to the proceedings) Mason, who is also a scientist. Oh, btw, speaking of adding sex appeal to the movie -which we were above – I should note that pretty much the first thing that Terry does upon arriving at the base is take a shower, giving Tina Carver an opportunity to show off her lovely… shoulders. (Hey, remember, we’re talking 1957 here. This isn’t an 80s-styles shower scene, you pervs.)
Okay, so now the stage is set, the players in place, and it’s time to bring on the monster. At first, the only sign that something unusual is going on is a widening crack that appears above the prince’s grave. Soon, however, it’s obvious that something is actually growing there, and before long it takes on the figure of a frowning tree mass, complete with eyes and the ceremonial dagger with which the prince was killed sticking out of the area where its heart should be.
Upon further examination by the scientists, it becomes obvious that the tree thing is at least somewhat alive, though it may be dying. Terry insists that they have to take it back to the lab to see if they can revive it, or at least so they can study it. As it turns out, this is not the first tree monster the natives have confronted which means they already conveniently have a name for it – the Tabanga.
After examining the Tabanga and exposing it to an experimental gas that Terry has been working on, the scientists decide to call it a night. Unfortunately, it appears that the combination of Terry’s gas, the latent radiation in the area, and the prince’s curse truly have brought the monster back to life, and soon it is shambling about the native village, killing off those against whom the prince had sworn revenge. Aiding in this pursuit is a convenient pool of quicksand, without which no island worth its salt would be complete. To make matters worse, it is soon made clear that the monster is both bulletproof and fireproof.
As it turns out, there is only one way to return the Tabanga to the hell from which it came, and that solution is a doozy which I’m not going to reveal here, preferring instead to let you discover it for yourself as you watch the movie.
And, yes, despite my initial impression of this flick when I started watching it, I am going to recommend it to fans of the genre. No, it isn’t a classic, and in some circles it’s regarded as a truly bad movie, but like many of the cheapie sci-fi/horror movies of this time period it is not without its certain charms, mostly, I think, due to some of the choices made by the producers.
Plus, I mean, really just look at the design and costume work that went into the Tabanga – sure it’s obviously a guy in a rubber suit who can barely shamble around in its pursuit of those who should easily be able to out run it, – actually, this point is countered at times by making it amazingly sneaky, as it is often sneaking up on characters before grabbing and dispatching them – but who cares? If I’d wanted realism, I’d have watched some modern CGI-enhanced monstrosity that takes itself way too seriously.
So in the end, I’ll just say this: while From Hell It Came may be no Day of the Triifids, it may still very likely be the best shambling tree creature movie you’re likely to find.
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