Sting of Death (1966) User Reviews

Makes the Everglades look pretty

[ethylester · 5/10 · 14 September 2003]

The main thing I dug about this movie is the cool pad under the sea where the jellyfish man hangs out! You swim down to the bottom of the lake and you find a cave. Swim through the cave you end up in a swingin' mad scientist lab/paradise cove! It's really cool, You come up through the floor of the lab and you're not underwater anymore. Surrounded by big foam rocks and special 60's science equipment in the walls, it's like a honeymoon suite or something! Plus, the color in this movie is really nice, and it makes everything seem a little extra appealing. Maybe that's why I was so impressed with this little hideout under the sea!

If you see this movie on the Something Weird DVD after "Death Curse of Tartu" you will be shocked to notice that the Florida everglades don't look like such a dismal place after all. They're all bright green and pretty, like a summer vacation! Tartu's movie make the Everglades look like hell on earth. Sting of Death shows the other side.

Lastly, my favorite thing about this movie - THE JELLYFISH. What are they, little Glad sandwich baggies tied up with sparkley ribbon floating in a lake somewhere? Just bobbing up and down like someone just ate a crazy piece of candy and threw their colorful and clear wrapper in the water. The fish don't move, just bob with the waves. They don't attack, they just chill. They don't even have recognizable jellyfish features. Since when do jellyfish heads stand out about 2 inches from the water and never sink under?

And the JELLYFISH man with the huge balloon head. I think I wanna be him for Halloween. Looked like a beach ball spray painted grey. I think I'd get too hot, though. And the deformed guy sometimes has a right eye and sometimes he doesn't. That's tricky!

This movie is funny. Watch it because it's funny. And the main girl looks like Winona Ryder and Alissa Milano mixed together. 5/10.

Do the jella Jellyfish! Do it now!

[ChuckStraub · 5/10 · 13 February 2005]

I rented The "Sting of Death" on a DVD that also included "Death Curse of Tartu" and two very short features that I wasn't expecting, "Love Goddesses of Blood Island" and "Miami or Bust". As an added attraction, you can watch the "The Sting of Death" or the "Death Curse of Tartu" with director audio commentary if you wish. What really made watching this DVD a fun experience though was the "Sting of Death". This movie is what makes the DVD. The rest is inconsequential. The "Sting of Death" alone is worth the price of the rental or if purchased would make a fine addition to any video library. What makes this movie so attractive? It's a cheap low budget movie with lots of mistakes but that's why it's fun. You can't take this one too seriously even though it was intended to be a horror movie. The monster consists of a man in a black wet suit with tentacles attached and a black semi transparent plastic bag as a head. Watch the monster's ankles. The skin is exposed a few times. One scene shows a lot of jellyfish, which look like they were made with see through sandwich bags with pieces of blue and red in them. The scene is supposed to be scary but it looks like a bunch of garbage floating around in the water. What did impress me was the quality of the color. The movie really did look good. How the movie was made is another thing. For those that enjoy watching poorly made monster movies, this one is a must see. It's the only horror movie I know of that features a Jellyfish/man monster. They even have a song in this movie by Neil Sedaka called "The Jellyfish". You get to see them dance to it and hear it in it's entirety. It's great stuff. The song and dance is enough to give it a couple of points when rating it. This is a fun and humorous film. If you want something serious, this is not for you. If you like the kind of movie that's so bad it's good, this is just the thing. For 1950s and 60s monster movie fans, you really have to see this lesser known film. You have to see and hear it to believe it.

Just one more Southern film with a trashbag-based monster

[eminges · 4/10 · 30 October 2001]

Got to give it 4/10. One point plus three more - 1) you've got Neil Sedaka singing, "Do the Jellyfish." 2) You've got really, really pretty color, better than a lot of mainstream films from the same era. 3) And the final man vs. monster confrontation is so hilarious that you'll play it over and over, if, of course, you're drunk on your ***.

Kind of disappointing, really, because this probably would've been more fun if it had either been inept and stupid start to finish, or if it had been 'way-over-the-top whack like an Al Adamson epic. Worth watching mostly so you can tell people about this messed-up movie you saw about a guy with a Portuguese Man-o'-War for a head.

[The other Southern film with a trashbag-based monster, of course, is Attack of the Giant Leeches.]

Saran-Wrap jellyfish run amok!

[Alan-42 · 2 November 2003]

Now this movie is a hoot! A jellyfish mutant man stalks a rocking pool party of kooky biology students in the everglades! This beautifully preserved 1965 film on DVD from 'Something Weird Video' is something to behold. Yes, the acting is very bad. Yes, the color tinted Baggies' sandwich bags with rubber tentacles look nothing like Portuguese Man-of Wars. But who cares! Sting of Death is a great way to waste a rainy Sunday afternoon! Look for Deanna Lund (Land of the Giants)and Doug Hobart (Death Curse of Tartu)in smaller supporting roles!

Yet Another Joe Morrison Stinker!

[Hollywoodcanteen1945 · 1/10 · 17 May 2005]

"Miami" Joe Morrison reminds me of the old gag line, " I just can't get any respect." A good-looking guy, with a pleasant on-screen personality, yet he was saddled with one bomb after another. Locally in Miami he was a fairly popular guy in the South Beach kind of popularity. However, his films aren't much better than Ed Woods. So, if anything "Miami" Joe will always have a place in South Florida film history for starring in the worst movies ever made in Miami.

This film has a few cheesy scenes, and even a few minor laughes. I recall seeing it when it first came out at the long-gone Rio theater in downtown Miami City. I remember my dad and I laughing at all the snoring which was going on during the running of this film.

It's not "Miami" Joe's worst film, but it's far from his best either. I'd pass on the jellyfish and go out and eat a whaler at Burger King instead.

Drive in cheesy

[JoeB131 · 1/10 · 6 May 2012]

Sadly, there is always this underclass of movie making, the Poverty Row, the drive in, the direct to video and the You Tube quality film, that is out there and not very good, but someone really decided to dedicate a few weeks of their life to it.

The film is that a scientist studying jellyfish has a creepy assistant who has figured out (despite the lack of any formal education) how to make a giant jellyfish that he can bond with and attack hapless girls. No, seriously, this is the plot.

He joins with his giant jellyfish in Scooby Doo fashion in order to kill the girls who tormented him. Really.

The costume is truly pathetic (in a bunch of scenes, you can see where the flippers don't quite meet up with the leggings) and it's otherwise laughable. Wooden acting and Neil Sedaka who probably didn't know his music was being used here....

Don't Miss This Movie

[spetersen-79-962044 · 2/10 · 26 October 2011]

Yeah I know I only rated it 2 stars, but see it anyway. It must be viewed to be believed. This is plainly one of the dumbest movies ever made - the monster, a jellyfish-man, is as lame as they come (you can see the zipper), and it is filled with risible moments.

Be sure to see it with a group however, so you can all mock its many puerile bits. The unforgettable song, "The Jilla Jalla Jellyfish" is a show-stopper. And when I saw unforgettable, I mean it. The sucker is almost impossible to scrape off your brain cells. One of my friends tried to physically attack me when I teased him by playing the son. "I'll be hearing it in my head for the next week!" he raged.

The fact that a man-sized pitch black jellyfish-man can hide in a small swimming pool is a surefire crowd pleaser, as are the little cheerfully-colored plastic bags which "simulate" the big jellyfish attack on the hapless teens.

The final revelation of the jellyfish-man's identity will surprise not even the tiniest tot, though his suit looked so phony, it is a bit of a shock to learn that he's supposed to be a real honest-to-god monster, not just a guy dressed up as one in Scooby Doo fashion.

One of the worst movies ever made - you will goggle at the decisions the director chose to make. But you will also be entertained.

Even as a Virtual Fest, Montreal's Fantasia Brings the Jelly!

[alisonc-1 · 3/10 · 24 August 2020]

Montreal's Fantasia Festival has a tradition of bringing back to the screen old and forgotten films. In this year's virtual fest, that film is 1966's "Sting of Death," via a recently restored print. Karen, a college student, and several of her female friends visit her father, a biologist, on his remote island laboratory complex in the Florida Everglades. He is working with Jon, a brilliant assistant, and Egon, a strange and mutant-looking character who complains that nobody listens to him or likes him. He's especially upset that no one believes his theory that jellyfish can be grown to enormous sizes and then, you know, sting people to death. Karen and Jon, meanwhile, host a party of her father's students, who like to dance to Neil Sedaka's "Do the Jellyfish." When they make fun of Egon, however, they find that they have drifted into very dangerous territory indeed....

This is a fun, but really bad, movie - it's very hard not to crack up at the sight of a transformed Egon, for example, and little film-techniques like, oh, continuity or any ability to act, are thrown to the wayside, or rather, overboard into the depths of the very shallow Everglades. Would have been perfect to see with a Fantasia crowd, but it was pretty fun even just at home. I wouldn't go out of my way to search it out, though!

Pool Parties and Plastic Bags

[reelfreek414 · 4/10 · 4 October 2021]

Yes, it's a low budget schlocker but you've gotta give credit to this cast for playing it completely straight throughout the proceedings. And look for a pre "Land of the Giants" Deanna Lund as one of the groovy chicks coming to the doomed island. Looks like it was fun to film!

Wella, you gotta jella, or you're not any fella!

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 27 July 2016]

Florida based schlock master Bill Grefe strikes again with this bad movie classic, an endearingly idiotic creature feature with one of the tackiest creatures ever created for film. It takes place in the heart of the Everglades, as bubble headed college students converge on the swanky retreat of marine biologist Dr. Richardson (Jack Nagle). The doc's got himself a hunky young associate, John Hoyt (Joe Morrison), and a very pretty daughter, Miss Karen (Valerie Hawkins), and they're all about to get menaced by Jellyfish Man - a supposed hybrid of Portuguese Man of War and human - who looks more like a guy in a Halloween costume with a garbage bag over his head.

If you're still reading, you'll probably enjoy this piece of celluloid excrement. Granted, you do have to sit through some padding. But the padding isn't entirely worthless, because you get treated to "special singing guest star" Neil Sedaka belting out a tune to accompany the hottest dance of all time, the Jilla Jalla Jellyfish. There's lots of sexy girls to watch, and a substantial amount of close-ups on derrieres. The location shooting helps to give this colorful nonsense some degree of atmosphere. The performances are all pretty amateurish, but it'll be hard to take your eyes off Nagle, basically because he's got an ugly bump on his forehead that changes sizes throughout the course of the story. John Vella is a hoot as creepy character Egon. The music, credited to Al Jacobs and Lon E. Norman, actually isn't all that bad, and the same goes for the photography. The scenario (screenplay by Al Dempsey and an uncredited Bill Kerwin, the star of Herschell Gordon Lewis classics "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand Maniacs!") is just stupid enough to make things consistently amusing. Kerwins' brother Harry (himself director of "Barracuda") is the man credited with the makeup effects.

Ideal viewing for people looking for Z grade genre junk from decades past.

Five out of 10.

Excellent Summer Creature Feature

[Alien_I_Creator · 8/10 · 17 July 2007]

A group of wild, hepcat college kids head down with a friend to her father's house in sunny Florida for Spring Break. The man is a marine biologist and is currently studying jellyfish in his lab on premises. Apparently, the kids are there to learn a thing or two while helping out the doc in return for his hospitable welcome. However, being rowdy young college kids, they waste no time hazing and poking fun at the good doctors deformed and Igor-like assistant, Egon. But, Egon sticks around anyway. Mainly because he has got the hots for the Doctor's rather shapely daughter. Egon does have a breaking point, though. Beneath his mild facade lies the heart of a hateful, vindictive, and bitter man. And having vast knowledge of science himself, Egon has built himself a laboratory out in the middle of the swamp. It is from that secret lab that emerges a killer jellyfish man with revenge and murder on his mind.

From the mid 1960s through the early 1970s, director William Grefe' filmed a number of movies in and around the Florida Everglades. One of his best, and most popular, is Sting of Death. It's a low-budget cult favorite and exudes a flair of b-grade campiness and absurdity which will easily grab the attention of any connoisseur of cinematic oddities. It is also worthy to note that Sting of Death contains two musical contributions from Neil Sedaka, including Do the Jellyfish which makes for plenty of go-go gyrating fun. This freaky summer creature feature is actually a pretty impressive piece of 60s schlock.

Do the Jella the Jilla Jalla Jellafish.....

[dolly_the_ye-ye_bird · 6/10 · 24 May 2011]

This was a surprisingly entertaining camp flick. I adore the genre, but generally not because they keep me on the edge of my seat but because I fall off my seat laughing at them. This film made me do both! The story line wasn't too bad: People on a remote island are being murdered by a mysterious half man/half jellyfish creature and his glad bag minions. They're cut off from the outside world because, wouldn't ya know it, the radio is cut and the boats are almost out of gas! To be fair, toward the end, the film itself runs out of steam. It's a bit anti-climactic and I can't even begin to understand the man-to-jellyfish change scene. It's just plain odd! But odd in a good way. For it's budget, it's quite well done. The colour is fab and the locations are quite good. The girls' wardrobe is to die for if you're a '60s vintage-aholic like me. All in all a definite must see for horror, camp, and '60s aficionados. 6/10

The Attack of the Incredible Fearsome Half-Man-Half-Jellyfish!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 20 December 2009]

"Sting of Death" is an unbelievably tacky but irresistibly charming 60's monster movie that still attempts to cash in on the success of Universal's "Creature from the Black Lagoon" even though it was more than a decade already since that film hit big at the box office. But instead of the tropical Amazon jungle setting of "Creature…", we have a Florida Everglades setting (which is still a great location, by the way) and instead of a the convincing and genuinely scary missing-link type of amphibious creature here we have a … jellyfish man! Not just any type of jellyfish man, but a Portuguese Man o'War monster with a diving outfit and a big cry cleaning bag over his head! But the unusual – to say the least – origin of the monster is not the only reason why "Sting of Death" is such a legendary bad horror film! It's also one of those contemporary 60's flicks that insisted on portraying all teenagers like disrespectful and misbehaving juvenile delinquents doing nothing but dancing all day long. There's a downright hilarious sequence early in the film when a boat full of university students arrive on the Everglades Island. They jump ashore and promptly start dancing ludicrously. The music is quite atrocious (what do you expect from a song called "Do the Jellyfish" written & performed by Neil Sedaka?) and director William Grefe just repeatedly shows close-up images of girls shaking their bottoms. Then, suddenly, the teenagers spot the deformed and slightly retarded island handyman and unanimously interrupt their dancing to do some cruel bullying. They're so proud of themselves for being the crap out of a defenseless retard that they spontaneously start a Conga dance. Two minutes later, it's time for another shameless and integral 7 minute lasting dance montage; this time next to a pool. They're so busy dancing that nobody even notices the Jellyfish monster hiding in the pool and patiently waiting for the first stupid person to take a refreshing dive. The Everglades setting is terrific and the special effects (the dry cleaning bags) are tremendously inventive and charming, but the plot of "Sting of Death" is hilariously inept and imbecilic. The main characters are quite amusing, since they all feature at least one noticeably peculiar physical characteristic. There's the island professor (who owns the island estate) with a gigantic black spot on his forehead – kind of like former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev) – and he apparently enjoys walking around amongst the teenagers dressed in a tight and brightly colored short like he's some sort of old pervert. The lead hero acts like a life-size mannequin doll and he really seems terrified to move a muscle when he speaks. The finale of "Sting of Death" contains some unforgettable material like an underwater lair, a jellyfish breeding tank and the craziest showdown in history. If you like bad horror, this is a must see!

Obscurity from 60's raises its ugly "head"

[gortx · 3 July 2002]

One of the more obscure works from 60's SF/Horror Cinema has raised its ugly head in the form of SOMETHING WEIRD'S VHS & DVD release (some early copies had tech flaws so beware unscrupulous dealers). Not so much awful as just plain dumb, STING OF DEATH has a few unintended yocks along the way for the "so bad its good" crowd, but is mainly numb and dull more than "fun". On the plus side, the photography and songs (by NEIL SEDAKA!) aren't half-bad, and the ladies are far more attractive than usual for this type of regional exploitation quickie (including DEANA LUND in her debut). But, the musical scoring is lax, the dialogue mostly lame and it has one of the most illogical creature costumes in history! To wit, a none-too-well disguised black wetsuit with a few rubber tentacles and big CLEAR plastic bag on an actor's head! This is the "jellyfish" monster! At first we were ready to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt and assume the creature PUT ON the wetsuit before diving into the waters - but no, in the "climactic" sequence the creature transforms before us STRAIGHT INTO THE WETSUIT! And, you gotta laugh when you see the actor's pale white skin emerge from between the bottom leg of the wetsuit and the BLACK RUBBER FINS the "monster" has on!

So bad it's good!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 22 February 2007]

This film actually deserves to be much better known---especially among bad movie junkies!! While ROBOT MONSTER is very famous for having the monster be a guy in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet, this film is at least as bad in featuring a guy in a scuba outfit covered in slime and a garbage bag for a head!!! Apparently, he was part-man and part-Portuguese Man O'War and so this was the clever way they made him look like one of these deadly creatures! What was even sillier was that you could actually see the flippers on his feet were flippers--and you could see the seem! For sheer cheesiness, this film might just be the most hilariously inept monster of all time. In addition, these cousins of the jellyfish that attacked and killed a boatload of people were actually plastic baggies with tentacles glued onto them! As for the plot, three researchers live on an island that borders the Everglades. When the daughter of the head researcher comes with her obnoxious friends, one of the "friends" goes out of her way to laugh at the one researcher because he has a facial deformity (looking like he'd had a stroke--nothing THAT unusual or ugly)! Then, when a large group of college students arrive a short time later, they knock this same guy to the ground and laugh hysterically at the fact he's deformed!!! These stupid and over the top scenes made the crowd scenes from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME seem subtle in comparison! Not surprisingly, around this same time, the house guests start being murdered by an unknown creature. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure who's behind all this, but apparently this is a pretty dumb group so only towards the end do they unravel the shocking mystery--yup, the deformed guy has somehow made himself part man and part stinging machine! Throughout all this hoopla, people behave pretty irrationally and put themselves in harms way again and again--just like the same stupid teens acted in the Jason and Freddy Kruger movies in later decades--but with even WORSE acting and production values.

The bottom line is that the film is hilarious and very watchable--especially with a group of friends who like poking fun at absurdly bad films. This movie, while not as funny as PLAN 9, is much funnier that THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN, TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE or any one of a number of other cult-classic bad films.

Do the Jella! The Jilla-Jella!

[boris-26 · 4/10 · 11 February 2006]

STING OF DEATH involves a large jellyfish that attacks young scientists. Only here the jellyfish looks very much like a heavy-duty garbage bag. Grefe, along with Frank Henenloter, (cult filmmaker and Something Weird's resident film restorer) provide commentary tracks for both films. STING features young Neil Sedaka introducing a dance (that did not sweep the nation) and a song called "The Jellyfish." This disc even comes with a print-out of the lyrics ("Forget Your Cinderella, and do the Jella... The jilla-jalla jella...") DVD's really bring out the run and shoot aspects of low budget film-making. Hand held work is accented with DVD's clarity. This clarity also shows off shifts in film stocks, where grainy stock footage is cut with staged fine-grain action.

Ultra-cheap CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON wannabe

[Maciste_Brother · 3/10 · 14 May 2003]

I watched STING OF DEATH on the Something Weird DVD and it's fun and silly movie from the 60s with very little going for it except some excellent cinematography (sharp image!) and a good looking cast of unknowns. The film is not scary and the monster is hilarious. The set for the monster's hideaway is pure papier maché. You can actually see the woman make the "rocks" move just by touching them. It's definitely a must see for folks who like ultra cheap horror movies, for a laugh or for some sort of interesting time capsule. Personally, I prefer STING OF DEATH over DEATH CURSE OF TARTU. The characters weren't as annoying as those in TARTU. Those silly "Do The Jellyfish" dancing scenes are really something else. And the bodycount is very high. But like TARTU, nothing about all of this is very convincing, well except for the excellent underwater cinematography.

Utterly ridiculous but fun

[preppy-3 · 3/10 · 9 September 2017]

Some nonsense about a scientist and his assistant experimenting with jellyfish. Unknown to the scientist his assistant has (somehow) managed to grow a giant jellyfish and (somehow) transforms himself into a walking jellyfish that goes out and kills a bunch of brainless college kids. Full of TERRIBLE dialogue, atrocious acting and the immortal Neil Sadaka classic "The Jellyfish Song"! And wait'll you see the monster! It's clearly a guy in a stupid looking ill-fitting suit! This is the type of movie that local stations used to show on TV on Saturday afternoons. There's no nudity, sex or swearing and the violence is all safely PG rated. It's bottom of the barrel stuff but fun in a ridiculous sort of way. The cast is attractive, its in bright color and some of the acting wasn't half bad. Good for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Cheesy and bad, but enjoyable still...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 17 January 2021]

Sure, when I sat down in 2021 to watch the 1966 sci-fi horror movie titled "Sting of Death", I wasn't exactly having much of any expectations for the movie, mostly given its age, but also from its synopsis. But still, I hadn't ever heard about the movie, nor seen it, so of course I found the time to sit down and watch "Sting of Death".

And mind you, it was bad alright. But it is one of those movies that are so bad and cheesy that it actually slips over into becoming enjoyable and watchable. And yeah, "Sting of Death" was one such movie.

The storyline in "Sting of Death" was pretty straight forward. And for a sci-fi horror from the mid-1960, I would say that the plot and script in "Sting of Death" was pretty generic and one that comes a dime a dozen, actually. Sure, it was still enjoyable on some level, albeit it was predictable.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the age and the plot of the movie. However, you shouldn't be expecting anything grand here. And it is nowhere near other movies of its kind from the same era in terms of acting performances.

Visually then "Sting of Death" was just laughable, especially the design of the creature itself and its jellyfish companions. I will not spoil anything here, because it was so bad that it has to be seen with own eyes to believed.

The music in the movie was just strange, especially the music they opted for during the dramatic chase scenes and whenever something 'scary' was about to happen.

There was something absurdly enjoyable about the 1966 movie from writer William Kerwin and director William Grefé. "Sting of Death" is worth sitting down to watch for a good laugh actually. My rating of the movie lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. While watchable, "Sting of Death" is hardly a movie that you will watch more than once.

Do the jellyfish!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 24 November 2020]

Sold as a double bill with William Grefé's Death Curse of Tartu, this is Florida regional drive-in exploitation at its absolute best. I mean, sure there are plenty of movies where sea creatures rise to the beach to menace near-nude girls, but do any of them have Neil Sedaka* belting out "Do the Jellyfish?"

Shot on the very same Rainbow Springs that were once attacked by the Creature from the Black Lagoon, this starts off hot, with a hand reaching up from the depths of the ocean to murder an innocent young girl who just wants to listen to her radio.

A bunch of college kids - well, one of them is a doctor and his assistant, but come on, this is basically a slasher in the swamps - just want to drink orange drink and make fun of Egon, their host's helper with the scary face. Why, it's enough for a man to turn himself into a half-human, half-jellyfish maniac who knows how to use an axe when he isn't sending an entire armada of Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish to kill everyone.

And yeah, he does have a giant jellyfish in a tank and a head shaped like one. This is that kind of movie. That kind of awesome movie where the killer has obviously flippers on and a giant inflatable head.

*They may have advertised special singing star Neil Sedaka, but they never promised you he'd show up, did they?

Florida man makes two movies for the price of none

[oulamies · 4/10 · 4 March 2023]

66 was the year of William Grefé's Evergladesploitation trash hits Sting of Death and Death Curse of Tartu. The national park proved an apt locale for cheap horror; most of the time the proceedings feel almost as exotic as the Filipino 'Blood Island' movies. The lush marshlands are beautifully photographed for the most part and Sting of Death even has an airboat chase scene.

Make no mistake, the film is a stinker. A research team plus a bunch of roistering college kids are terrorized by a jellyfish-man killer who looks like a garbage bin version of the mushroom people in Toho's Matango. The pacing is not as abysmal as in Death Curse of Tartu (where an unreasonably big chunk of the runtime is padded with various characters trudging through bog to suspense music), but the movie is low on thrills of any kind. It's really only worth seeing for the scenery and that bizarre jellyfish costume.

Watch out for the killer jellyfish man!

[Woodyanders · 10/10 · 27 March 2006]

William Grefe, the terminally terrible bargain basement Sunshine State auteur responsible for such choice all-thumbs turkeys as the atrocious "Death Curse of Tartu," the tawdry "The Naked Zoo," the wonderfully wretched William Shatner psycho scream "Impulse," and the amiably dippy "Jaws" clone "Mako: Jaws of Death," strikes out something smelly once again with this alarmingly awful, yet undeniably awesome and hugely enjoyable $1.98 K-Mart dime-store discount version of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." When a hottie college gal invites a bunch of her friends over to her scientist dad's remote Florida Everglades abode for a swinging swampland shindig, you know that the bash is bound to be crashed by a deadly monster of some kind or another. Well, said monster does indeed materialize in the gloriously ludicrous form of an uproariously crummy-looking, seaweed-covered, obscenely bulbous-headed -- the bloodthirsty beast looks like it has a large, filthy, semi-transparent plastic garbage bag over its noggin! -- cheesoid humanoid murderous mutant jellyfish man who proceeds to off the pinheads with his lethal poison touch. If that isn't absurd enough, we've also got an uglier-than-a-donkey's-butt creepy hunchback assistant who tries desperately to win over our fetching leading lady's affection to no avail, Neil Sedaka making an off-screen strictly-on-the-radio appearance heartily belting out the exceptionally asinine dance ditty "The Jellyfish" during a simply smashing let it all hang out hedonistic pool party sequence (Neil eventually did pop up on screen to warble the similarly silly "Do the Waterbug" in the sensationally schlocky psycho howler "The Playgirl Killer"), lots of attractive sweet young honeys in skimpy apparel shaking their shapely fannies in the most rhythmically challenged manner imaginable (ravishing redhead looker Deana Lund of "Land of the Giants" fame among 'em), and the marvelously nihilistic fact that almost everyone in the horrendously dismal cast gets deservedly bagged by the homicidal whatchamawhosit.

Add Grefe's lifeless direction, pacing so lethargic it makes two snails on downers going uphill sound downright stirring in comparison, painfully stiff acting, gaudy, but static photography, a surprisingly rousing last reel boat chase, and one of those horribly droning stock film library scores. Put all these endearingly crappy elements together and the net result is a real four-star stink-bomb that hard-core bad movie buffs will relish every last profoundly pitiful minute of. Those fabulous freaks at Something Weird Video offer this must-see doozy on a bang-up DVD double bill with "Death Curse of Tartu;" tasty extras include the original theatrical trailers and a pair of very lively, informative and often hilarious William Grefe commentaries.

Plastic Bag Jellyfish - 7/10

[worldsworstwryter · 7/10 · 15 October 2022]

I'd scream too if the jellyfish man came at me with that suit on. Did you see how grubby it was? So much sand!

I actually had a lot of fun watching this movie. The story is weird, but interesting, at least. Some of the effects were surprisingly pretty good, though others were... less so. The transformation sequence and the plastic bag jellyfish were both hilariously bad, but with an emphasis on the hilarious.

Also, some of the scenes went on for way too long. (the dance party!) But, at least you get plenty of time to appreciate everyone's amazing dance moves. So again, even the 'bad' stuff is still funny.

The thing I noticed the most while watching though, is that some of the cinematography is actually really nice looking. In particular, some of the shots of the swamps were really pretty, as was the underwater stuff.

Worst monster Ever???

[IMOvies · 4 October 2003]

STING OF DEATH (1965) * (D:William Grefe) Poor film starts off with many unintended laughs and hopes for a good time; the lead man bumped his head early in the filming and there's an ugly scab on his forehead that gets bigger & smaller and disappears & reappears. There's a funny dance number by Neil Sedaka... but the chuckles gradually wear thin and this becomes very dull. The monster here may be the worst Ever - a guy in flippers and diving suit with a garbage bag on his head to represent a jellyfish creature.